Malaysian man caught and arrested with over S$31,000 cash and jewelry from scam victim

SINGAPORE: A 27-year-old Malaysian man was caught and will be charged in court for his involvement in a scam to impersonate government officials, in this case a member of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). 

The victim was told by the impersonator claiming to be from the MAS that she was under investigation for an offence and had to surrender her funds for the investigation. Accordingly, she handed over jewellery worth more than S$6,000 and more than S$25,000 in cash to unknown persons on three separate occasions. 

Preliminary findings revealed that the suspect was tasked by unknown persons to collect cash and valuables from scam victims and pass them to others in Singapore before returning to Malaysia. He was arrested when he re-entered Singapore. 

The suspect will face charges for conspiring to help another person retain benefits from criminal activities, in accordance with the Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Serious Crimes (Confiscation of Benefits) Act 1992. The penalty for the offence is  up to 10 years’ jail and/or a fine of up to S$500,000. 

The authorities remind people never to hand over money or valuables to unknown persons or leave them at physical locations for collection. 

Additionally, government officials, including those from MAS, will never ask the public to transfer money, share banking details, install unofficial mobile apps, or transfer calls to the police. 

Anyone with information on such scams should call the police hotline at 1800-255-0000 or report online at www.police.gov.sg/i-witness. For urgent assistance, dial 999.

Singapore’s Parliament passed amendments to criminal law on Tuesday (Nov 4) that will subject scammers to mandatory caning as part of the country’s efforts to combat widespread fraud. According to the Criminal Law (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill, those who are convicted can be punished with six to 24 strokes of the cane.