50-year-old victim loses $20,000 to scam involving extortion letters with fake obscene photos

Seven men and five women, aged between 18 and 46, are being investigated for their suspected involvement in providing bank accounts and SIM cards used to commit a series of extortion.

The police said in a statement that between March and April this year, they received more than 170 reports from victims who had received extortionary letters via post containing manipulated photographs.

Publicly sourced pictures of the victims' faces would be superimposed on obscene photographs of a man and a woman purportedly in an intimate and compromising position.

The letters warned of threatening consequences unless the recipients contacted the email address provided in the letters.

In one of the reports, a 50-year-old victim lost $20,000 after responding to the email address and transferring the money to a bank account allegedly provided by the other party.

In a two-week operation conducted by officers from Central Police Division, the 12 people were found to be allegedly involved in either procuring bank accounts for criminal activities or who facilitated or assisted in the unauthorised access of Singpass accounts, or purchased and relinquished local SIM cards which were obtained through illegal means, all of which were alleged to have been facilitating the criminal activities of overseas scam syndicates.

Preliminary investigations revealed that the 12 people had purportedly received or were promised commissions.

During the operation, at least $115,000 in suspected criminal proceeds, some of which were purportedly linked to other scam cases, were recovered by the police and an array of electronic devices were seized.

A 23-year-old woman will be charged in court on May 2 with the offence of facilitating unauthorised access to computer material.

If convicted, she faces up to two years' jail, a fine, or both.

The police said they take a serious view of those who may be directly or indirectly involved in scams and fraud.

"Those involved in such illegal activities, or who enable such illegal activities by procuring and relinquishing bank accounts, Singpass accounts or SIM cards, will be dealt with sternly in accordance with the law," the police said.

"To avoid being accomplice to these crimes, members of the public should refrain from purchasing and relinquishing pre-registered prepaid/postpaid SIM cards and always reject seemingly attractive money-making opportunities promising fast and easy pay-outs for the use of their Singpass accounts, bank accounts, or allow their personal bank accounts to be used to receive and transfer/remit monies."

For more information on scams, visit scamalert.sg or call the Anti-Scam Helpline at 1800-722-6688.

Anyone with information on such scams may call the police hotline at 1800-255-0000 or submit information online at www.police.gov.sg/iwitness.