Four arrested for suspected money laundering of proceeds from love scams
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
The police seized from the syndicate cash amounting to $80,600, materials used in carrying out crimes and electronic devices.
PHOTO: SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE
Follow topic:
SINGAPORE – Four people, believed to be from a syndicate involved in love scams, were arrested on Friday for suspected money laundering.
The two men and two women, aged between 32 and 51, had allegedly laundered part of the criminal proceeds from scam victims, according to a statement issued by the Singapore Police Force on Saturday.
The arrests prevented a further monetary loss of at least $115,000 from a victim, the police said.
The arrest of the four suspects was a result of investigations after other syndicate members were caught. The syndicate carried out crimes and scams, and their victims’ losses amounted to at least $370,000 between August and September 2023, the police added.
Two other syndicate members – both men, aged 41 and 58 – were charged in court earlier in September. Three other syndicate members, a man and two women, aged between 36 and 40, were arrested in September and are assisting with the investigations.
The police seized from the syndicate cash amounting to $80,600, materials used in carrying out crimes and electronic devices.
Two of the suspects arrested on Friday – a 51-year-old man and a 50-year-old woman – will be charged in court on Saturday with money laundering.
The offence carries a fine not exceeding $500,000, a jail term of up to 10 years, or both.
The police seized cash amounting to $80,600, materials used in carrying out crimes and electronic devices from the syndicate members.
PHOTO: SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE
According to the police’s mid-year scam statistics for 2023, there were 22,339 scam cases reported from January to June, a 64.5 per cent increase from the 13,576 cases during the same period in 2022.
But the total amount that victims lost in the first half of this year dipped slightly to $334.5 million from $342.1 million in the same period last year.
Scam victims in Singapore lost a total of $660.7 million in 2022, up from $632 million in 2021.
The police advised people to take these precautions:
Be careful when befriending strangers online.
Do not send money to people you do not know or have not met in person before.
Never share your Internet banking credentials or one-time passwords.
Reject requests to use your personal bank accounts to receive and transfer money on behalf of other people.
For information on scams, visit www.scamalert.sg
Those who have information on such crimes can call the police hotline on 1800-255-0000, or go to www.police.gov.sg/iwitness
