A man who allegedly collected cash and jewellery from a government official impersonation scam victim and passed the loot to the scammers has been hauled to court.
On July 14, Tan Ming Chuan, 40, was handed one charge of assisting another person to retain their benefits from criminal conduct.
Tan was arrested one day after the police received a report of a scam involving a fake official from the Monetary Authority of Singapore on July 11.
The victim left about $150,000 worth of cash and jewellery at a designated location for Tan, who acted as a cash mule for the scammer, the police said.
After conducting extensive ground inquiries and follow-up investigations, officers from the Anti-Scam Command arrested the man on July 12.
According to preliminary investigations, Tan was purportedly involved in other government official impersonation scams. He had allegedly been instructed to collect cash from scam victims and hand it over to an unknown person.
Tan is currently remanded at the Central Police Division. His case will be mentioned again on July 21.
If convicted, he could be jailed for up to 10 years and fined up to $500,000.
Government official impersonation scams have been one of the top ruses in recent years, with victims losing $151.3 million in 2024 and $92.5 million in 2023.
In June alone, victims of government official impersonation scams lost at least $6.7 million, the police had said earlier. At least 80 cases were reported that month.
Victims would receive unsolicited calls from scammers impersonating officials from banks such as DBS Bank and Maybank, financial institutions such as Income Insurance and UnionPay, or government agencies such as the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority, said the police.
When victims denied being involved, they would be transferred to another scammer claiming to be a government official such as from the Monetary Authority of Singapore, either local or China police, or the Ministry of Law.
Scammers would then accuse victims of being involved in criminal activities such as money laundering, and ask them to withdraw money, purchase gold bars, or declare valuables they owned to be handed over to unknown individuals for “investigation”.
In some cases, victims were instructed to place these items in discreet locations for collection instead.
Victims would realise that they had been scammed only when the scammers became uncontactable or when they sought verification with the police.
In a news release regarding Tan’s arrest, police reminded people “never to transfer monies, hand monies or other valuables to any unknown persons or persons whose identity you did not verify”.
Christine Tan for The Straits Times
Man charged for collecting $150k in cash, jewellery for scammers
