SINGAPORE - The police in the past week hauled up 11 men for their suspected involvement in scams that defrauded victims of more than $281,000.
Three of them have been arrested and charged with cheating victims by pretending to sell face masks that were never delivered.
The other eight are being investigated for cheating or facilitating the cheating of victims through other schemes.
The 11 men, aged between 26 and 51, were picked up separately between March 9 and March 17, the police said on Monday (March 24). Together, they were responsible for more than 25 cases of scams.
The three arrested men, aged 32, 36 and 42, were apprehended after they induced victims to make advance payments for face masks and subsequently became uncontactable.
The 42-year-old man is believed to have done so six times, reaching out to victims through a WhatsApp group and scamming them of more than $52,500. He was arrested on March 10 and charged on March 12 for cheating.
Meanwhile, the other two men are suspected of having done so on e-commerce platform Carousell, cheating at least two victims of more than $140. The police are investigating the case as cheating, which carries a jail term of up to 10 years and a fine.
Of the other eight men under investigation, five are allegedly involved in four cheating cases involving more than $15,900.
Aged between 26 and 44, they allegedly allowed their bank accounts to be used by criminals in scams, and are being investigated for either cheating or money laundering, the police said.
Those found guilty of money laundering can be jailed up to 10 years, fined up to $500,000, or both.
The other three men, aged between 33 and 51, are being investigated for their alleged involvement in at least 13 separate cases of cheating, through schemes that include purported wine investments, the purchase of gaming equipment and the purchase of antique products.
They cheated victims of more than $212,500.
The police have advised the public to be careful when making online purchases. They cautioned that scammers may try to leverage public anxieties arising from the coronavirus outbreak, and urged people not to buy anything on impulse and to buy only from reputable websites and platforms.
Requests by others to use their bank accounts or mobile phone lines should be rejected, the police added, saying: "(You) will be held accountable if they are linked to illegal transactions or have been used in the facilitation of crimes."
