$8.1 million lost in 2,700 scam cases: M'sia and S'pore police join forces to bust over 850 scammers
Over 850 people, aged between 15 to 77, are being investigated in Malaysia and Singapore for their suspected involvement in over 2,700 cases of scams, where victims reportedly lost over $8.1 million.
The Anti-Scam Command (ASCom) of the Singapore Police Force (SPF), together with Malaysia’s National Scam Response Centre (NSRC), conducted a month-long anti-scam operation between February 10 to March 9.
More than 3,400 bank accounts suspected to be linked to scams were detected and frozen by the ASCom and the NSRC, with more than $2 million seized in these bank accounts.
During this operation, the SPFand the Royal Malaysia Police (RMP) worked closely to arrest a 34-year-old man on February 28.
The man was allegedly involved in managing a group of scammers who impersonated police officers in scam cases. He was apprehended in Malaysia and then handed over to the Singapore police.
He has been charged with the offence of criminal conspiracy to commit cheating in Singapore on March 1.
In another case of an internet love scam, a 48-year-old female victim had befriended a “friend” through an online dating application in December 2024.
The friend was in fact a scammer.
After gaining the victim’s trust, the scammer sought financial assistance, and she agreed to help. Believing that the scammer was facing financial difficulties, the victim transferred more than $130,000 to the scammer.
Subsequently, the victim realised it was a scam and lodged a police report. The ASCom analysed the funds trail and found that the funds had been sent to a payment service provider’s account in Malaysia.
With the swift assistance from the NSRC, more than $34,000 was successfully secured in the account.
Prior to this operation, the ASCom and the Malaysia's NSRC worked hand in hand to analyse, identify and seize illegal cross-border funds movements as part of Project FRONTIER+.
FRONTIER+ was established on October 21 2024 and compromises representatives from anti-scam centres in Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Thailand, Maldives, South Korea and Australia.
This month-long collaboration between the ASCom and Malaysian law enforcement agencies marks the first-of-its-kind anti-scam joint operation between ASCom and the FRONTIER+ members, demonstrating Singapore’s and Malaysia’s strong commitment to combat scams and money laundering at the transnational level, the police said in a statement.
Director of the SPF Commercial Affairs Department, Mr David Chew, said: “As transnational scam syndicates become increasingly sophisticated in their structure and modus operandi, close cooperation between the Singapore and Malaysia authorities is crucial.
"We will continue to work together to stay ahead of the criminals’ tactics and with help from our law enforcement partners overseas, ensure that transnational criminals are detected and arrested wherever they may choose to operate from.”
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