M'sian woman, 73, loitering outside gold dealer at New Bridge Road arrested after staff called cops
An employee of BullionStar, a gold and silver dealer at New Bridge Road, alerted the police to a woman loitering suspiciously outside the premises on Nov 24.
Officers from Central Police Division arrested the 73-year-old woman on the same day.
Between Oct 8 and Nov 24, the police received reports of scammers posing as officials purportedly from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).
The victims were told that their bank accounts were allegedly linked to money-laundering activities or that their personal information had been compromised. They were instructed to surrender their money and valuables for the purpose of investigations.
The victims complied and met unknown individuals at various locations across Singapore to hand over cash and gold bars.
The victims later realised they had been scammed when they failed to receive the promised refunds, or when the purported officials became uncontactable.
The woman was believed to be involved in at least three such scam cases as a mule.
The police seized $200 cash and gold bars worth about $200,000 from her.
Preliminary investigations revealed that the woman had allegedly been facilitating the operations of a scam syndicate by collecting cash and gold bars from scam victims at various locations in Singapore.
The money and gold bars collected were then handed over to unknown persons, believed to be members of the syndicate.
Police said investigations against the woman are ongoing.
