SINGAPORE: A 21-year-old woman suspected to become involved in a Tiongkok officials impersonation fraud was arrested after police received a written report on a kidnapping case which turned out to be taking place.
The authorities said in a news release on Saturday (Sep 24) that they received a report on Tuesday that another 21-year-old woman had allegedly been kidnapped.
Before the record was made, the particular victim’s parents within China received a video of their daughter with her hands and legs tied up, having a ransom demand through an unknown person interacting in Mandarin.
Following the report, law enforcement conducted searches and investigations to locate the victim and she has been found to be secure on Thursday, inside a Yishun flat leased by the 21-year-old woman.
Preliminary research revealed that the victim had earlier obtained a call from someone purporting to be from the Health Ministry in Singapore. The person alleged that a phone line registered within the victim’s name has been used to cheat people in China.
“When the particular victim denied this, the call was rerouted to another scammer purporting to be an officer from the ‘China Police’, who further supposed that a bank account within her name seemed to be found to be involved in money laundering routines in China, inch said the police.
The victim had been deceived into transferring more than S$350, 1000 as “bail money” to the scammer to avoid being deported.
The victim, working on the scammer’s guidelines, also recorded a video of herself getting tied up to assist in purported investigations.
“Thereafter, the scammer told the target to cease conversation and isolate herself in a ‘safe house’ that the scammer got arranged, ” mentioned the police.