A scammer, posing as a High Court official, will typically try to get a potential victim to part with money by saying an outstanding summons needs to be settled.

In one case, even a senior police officer's name was dropped.

On Wednesday afternoon, bank officer K.Y. Tan was startled to receive the following call, in Mandarin, at her office: 'This is a recorded message from the High Court of Singapore. Please press '9'.'

She did so and was connected to a woman who spoke with a foreign-sounding Chinese accent.

Miss Tan, 30, was told she had an outstanding High Court summons for involvement with a loan shark, and the call served as the fourth reminder.

'I became suspicious because the caller spoke such poor English. We had to switch to Mandarin,' she said.

The woman then asked for Miss Tan's telephone number.

Minutes later, a call came from a man claiming to be a senior Criminal Investigation Department officer.

She said: 'The man sounded like a Thai or a Vietnamese. He asked me to come down with my identity card and bank book to settle the summons.'

She refused. When she demanded to know where he was calling from, she was given the address of the police headquarters near Tan Tock Seng Hospital.

Miss Tan then called the police and was told there had been a series of such complaints and the police had launched an investigation.

The police said they had received complaints regarding such scams since late last month. So far, 35 have been received in the past three weeks.

Would-be victims were told to transfer money. One victim had parted with about $10,000, said the police.

The High Court has also received calls this week, with about 10 inquiries a day from people who may have been contacted by scammers.

On Wednesday, its spokesman said people should not be fooled, especially if they do not have any pending cases in the High Court. No court employee would ask anyone to transfer money over the phone.

Checks can be made with the High Court on 1800-338-1034.