SINGAPORE: At least S$ 1.7 million ( US$ 1.2 million ) have been lost so far this year to scams involving the impersonation of officers from the , Monetary Authority of Singapore ( MAS ) as well as representatives from NTUC Union, Income Insurance and UnionPay.
Six cases have been reported to the , Singapore Police Force ( SPF ) since January 2025.
In a combined press release on Friday ( Mar 14), SPF and MAS laid out the scammers ‘ modus operandi, warning citizens not to fall for these scams.
Victims may receive calls from nearby wireless lines that start with 65 or 8, informing them that they have excellent premiums associated with a fresh or dying life insurance policy.
They were then redirected to a second cheater who would ask  , private information such as bank account details and personal data to , check their policy details.
Patients were told that unless they cancel the insurance policy, the excellent taxes would automatically be deducted from their bank balances. This led to them verifying their bank transactions by performing bank payments to a particular lender account.
” To withdraw the insurance coverage, patients would first have to check their bank transactions by performing lender payments to a specified bank account. In some cases, patients may become guided in performing these payments through WhatsApp’s screen-sharing work”, said SPF and MAS.
” Throughout the procedure, patients were given the assurance that their finances would become refunded upon effective withdrawal of their plan policies”.
In other cases, patients were misled by swindlers posing as MAS soldiers.
These swindlers told subjects that their bank transactions were involved in money laundering activities or that their private information had been compromised, and that to “assist in examinations”, they had to transfer funds to a certain bank account.
Victims only realised that they were tricked when the scammers became uncontactable or did not receive refunds.