SINGAPORE: A total of S$227. 8mil (RM732. 69mil) was lost towards the top 10 scam sorts in the first 6 months of this year, up from the S$142. 5mil (RM458. 33mil) lost in the same period last year.
Job scams topped the list with over 3 or more, 500 cases reported and more than S$58mil (RM186. 55mil) dropped, according to mid-year data released by the law enforcement on Monday (Aug 29).
ALSO READ: SG woman lost S$17, 000 she acquired saved for her wedding to a job fraud
A total of 14, 349 scam cases had been reported this year, nearly double the 7, 746 cases reported in the same time period last year.
In response to The particular Straits Times ’ queries, the authorities said a total associated with S$346. 5mil (RM1. 11bil) was lost to all scams within the first half of this season. This is more than half from the S$633. 3mil (RM2. 03bil) lost within the whole of a year ago.
FURTHERMORE READ: ‘I didn’t stop in order to think’: Man in S’pore almost dropped over S$1mil if not for bank’s anti-scam team
There was also a 36% hike in general crime to twenty five, 593 cases, using a rise in outrage of modesty cases and cyber extortion offences.
“The frequency of scams continues to be high in Singapore. At least 90% of frauds in Singapore originate from overseas, ” stated the police.
“These scammers are typically a part of organised criminal organizations, and run sophisticated transnational operations which are not easy to identify or dismantle. These types of scammers are also well-resourced, and adept with using technology to cover their tracks. ”
ALSO READ: 1, 098 people in SG lose at least S$4. 5mil to con artists pretending to be friends
The police stated job scams, phishing scams, ecommerce ripoffs and investment frauds remain of particular concern, with reports of such frauds making up 74. 5% of the top 10 scam types in the very first half of this year.
Job scams, the fifth scam of interest during the same period last year, is now one of the most concerning.
A typical variant of the scam is tricking the victim to “help” ecommerce platform vendors improve their sales by causing advance purchases. The victims are certain that their cash would eventually become refunded and a percentage would be paid for them.
The scammers would initially return the victims the price of the items and spend them commissions. They will later claim to possess encountered issues with the refunds and would certainly stop paying the particular victims.
Phishing scams recorded the 2nd highest number of cases amongst all scam types. More than 2, three hundred cases were documented and the total amount lost was S$7. 8mil (RM25. 08mil).
In banking-related phishing scams, the particular culprits would impersonate a bank or government official plus pretend to assist sufferers with issues concerning their bank cards or even accounts.
They would then convince the victims to provide their particular account details plus one-time passwords.
There was a spike in the number of e-commerce scams reported, from 1, 057 cases during the first 1 / 2 of last year to two, 267 this year.
The police said ecommerce scams generally involve the sale of items online without delivering the items after transaction is made.
“The increase in ecommerce frauds is largely due to rental scams involving fake property listings, which made up 29. 6% of ecommerce scams. ”
The authorities said their Anti-Scam Centre froze greater than 7, 800 bank details and recovered near to S$80mil (RM257. 28mil) in the first half of the year, which was regarding 31. 4% of the total amount ripped off.
“The Anti-Scam Centre also functions closely with local telecommunication companies in order to terminate mobile ranges which are found to have been used for scams, as well as with social media platforms and online marketplaces to remove dubious accounts and commercials, ” they added.
Meanwhile, sufferers of cyber extortion lost more than S$754, 000 (RM2. 42mil), as cases flower to 203 from your previous 138.
In these cases, criminals would typically befriend victims online and subsequently cajole them into performing compromising or indecent acts in front of the camera. The footage or images would then be used to extort money from the victims.
Instagram was observed as the most common platform utilized to approach victims, followed by Facebook and Tinder, said the police.
Outrage of modesty cases went as much as 773 from 739, while cases of voyeurism decreased in order to 216 from 236.
Housebreaking and related crimes fallen to 77 through 88 cases while the number of robbery instances decreased to 7 from 16 cases in the same time period last year.
This is actually the lowest mid-year find for housebreaking plus robbery cases in the past 10 years, said the authorities. – The Straits Times (Singapore)/Asia Information Network