2 women arrested after victim hands $1m in cash to scammer impersonating Chinese official
Thinking she was being investigated for a serious crime, a woman handed $1 million in cash to a female ‘Chinese official’ over the course of five days.
As it turned out, she was being duped by scammers.More from .
The victim filed a police report in July, saying that she had received unsolicited phone calls from unknown persons claiming to be Chinese authorities.
The police said in a news release today (Oct 30) that they arrested two women aged 19 and 30 for their suspected involvement in an impersonation scam.
Commercial Affairs Department officers identified and arrested both suspects the same day the police report was made.
The younger woman is believed to have acted on the instruction of the scammers to collect the cash from the victim and hand over the money to the older woman.
Police investigations against the 19-year-old suspect are ongoing.
Meanwhile, the 30-year-old suspect will be charged in court today with assisting another person to retain benefits from criminal conduct, the police said.
For being involved in an arrangement to facilitate the retention of others’ criminal benefits, she may face a jail term of up to 10 years, a fine of up to $500,000, or both.
Another victim cheated of $500,000 by ‘Chinese official’
Earlier this week, the police received a report of a similar nature.
A woman impersonating a Chinese official was said to have swindled about $500,000 from a victim after meeting him near Block 409 Bedok North Avenue 2, Lianhe Wanbao reported.
He handed the money to the suspect, who was seen dressed in office wear in CCTV images.
Prior to the meeting on Oct 23, the victim had received phone calls from people claiming to be Chinese authorities, asking him for large sums of money.
The police have since located the suspect who is now assisting with investigations.
Scam alert
According to police statistics from January to June this year, scams revolving around the impersonation of China officials is one of the top 10 types of scam in Singapore, with 225 reports from victims who lost a total of $11.1 million.
In today’s news release, the police also warned members of the public not to collect money from other individuals on the behalf of unknown persons, especially those claiming to be officers from law enforcement agencies.
Such callers are most likely scammers, and those who act on their instructions may unwittingly commit a crime by assisting to launder money from criminal activities.
For scam-related advice, call the National Crime Prevention Council’s anti-scam helpline at 1800-722-6688 or visit www.scamalert.sg.
