Scam victims added to chat groups offering job, investment opportunities; at least S$6.8 million lost this year
Victims only realise they have been scammed when they are unable to withdraw their earnings despite transferring the fees incurred for the "investment".
Screengrabs of conversations between the scammer and victim in chat groups and channels purportedly offering "special investment or job opportunities". (Images: SPF)
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SINGAPORE: At least 460 victims have fallen prey to investment and job scams since January this year, with losses amounting to at least S$6.8 million (US$5 million).
The victims were added by people they do not know into chat groups and channels on messaging platforms like Telegram and WhatsApp, police said in a news release on Wednesday (Feb 14).
These chat groups and channels purportedly offer special investment or job opportunities.
"This is a common approach modus operandi exploited by scammers behind investment scams and job scams," police added.
The police advised the public to be cautious when they are added by unknown people into such chat groups or channels.
The public is encouraged to activate the privacy function on their devices which disallows unknown users from adding them into chat groups or channels, police added.
INVESTMENT SCAMS
To lure victims into believing that profits from these "investments" are authentic, scammers in these chat groups or channels will feature testimonials from other members claiming to have profited from various investment mechanisms.
Victims tempted by the attractive opportunities then contacted the scammers and were offered "investment packages", police said.
They were then prompted to provide their personal information "to set up accounts" and instructed to transfer their money to specified PayNow numbers, bank accounts, or cryptocurrency wallets as part of the "investment".
When setting up these accounts, victims may be instructed to download Virtual Private Network (VPN) applications to access the "investment" websites.
"These are instead scam websites used to reinforce the deceit," police said.
Before receiving earnings from their "investments", victims were asked to transfer increasingly large sums for fees incurred for the "investment".
They would only realise they had been scammed when they were unable to withdraw their earnings despite the fees transferred to the scammers.
JOB SCAMS
Scammers promising "profitable and easy online jobs" in these chat groups or channels lure victims into believing that these job offers are authentic by claiming to represent companies such as TikTok or actual online communications and marketing companies, the police said.
Victims would be given tasks involving the generation of social media traction, such as following, liking and commenting on accounts and posts on TikTok or Instagram. Victims would also be tasked to like and subscribe to YouTube channels and videos, like songs on Spotify, or like posts on Trip.com.
After completing the tasks, they would receive a small commission.
Scammers would then introduce more rewarding tasks after the victims are convinced they could earn more commission.
In these tasks, victims were asked to open accounts on scam job websites and transfer increasingly large sums of money to bank accounts or crypto wallets provided by the scammers.
“In some cases, scammers would provide victims with fake employment contracts to reinforce the deception,” police said.
Victims would only realise that they had been scammed when their website account showed a negative account balance and were told to pay additional funds to “upgrade their accounts”, or when they could not withdraw their "earnings".
