More migrant workers and maids falling victim to scams
Over 3,000 migrant workers fell prey to scams last year, up from nearly 2,000 the year before, according to police figures. The Straits Times looks at the common scams workers face.
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Yeo Shu Hui, Jessie Lim
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When Sam (not his real name), a migrant worker, accepted a job offer on June 20 last year, all he wanted was to earn more money quickly, so that he could build a bigger and more comfortable home for his family in Bangladesh.
The 45-year-old, who last saw his loved ones in August 2019, said: "I think everyone has plans to build their own house. It is my plan to build a nice house for my family."
Two days later, Sam, who works as a production coordinator in a warehouse here, lost more than $11,000 - almost equivalent to his salary for a year - to a job scam.
He told The Straits Times that he responded to a WhatsApp message from a foreign number which informed him that he could earn a commission by completing 60 orders on an online portal.
However, he had to deposit some money into a bank account first.
Sam put in $135 on June 21 and received $404 on the same day.
The next day, he made eight transactions amounting to $11,730, but was unable to retrieve his money later because he could not complete the orders.
That was when he realised he had fallen for a scam and he made a police report on the same day.
The police confirmed that a report was lodged and that investigations are ongoing.
Last year, there were 3,181 migrant workers who were victims of scams, up from 1,965 in 2020, said the police.
Some 357 domestic workers were scammed last year, up from 216 in 2020.
As at December last year, there were 246,300 migrant domestic workers in Singapore and 318,400 work permit holders in the construction, marine and process sectors, according to the Ministry of Manpower (MOM).
The police said they work closely with MOM and non-profit organisations to share the latest crime trends and anti-scam advisories with workers.
S11 Dormitories, which has about 13,000 occupants across its two facilities in Punggol and Changi, said it is working with the police to organise talks.
Domestic workers 'more susceptible' to SMS loan scams
A spokesman said the upcoming talks will be conducted "in our dormitories by officers who will explain the different types of scams migrant workers may be susceptible to".
Mr Ethan Guo, general manager of Transient Workers Count Too, said migrant workers are generally affected more by employment scams. "One needs to only go on Facebook to look at the many job ads that target migrant workers. They look very similar to posts by registered employment agents and it is therefore, to an untrained eye, impossible to tell one apart from another."
A spokesman for the Foreign Domestic Worker Association for Social Support and Training (Fast) said the group saw a high number of domestic workers falling victim to SMS loan scams last year.
The messages offer loans with a low administrative charge.
Fast said migrant domestic workers are more susceptible to such scams as the platform used is a mobile phone, and those who are desperate for cash would tend to respond due to the convenience of securing the supposed loan.
It added that the pandemic has caused some family members of these workers to lose their income, increasing the need for the workers to support their families, pushing many of them to take up loans.
Typically, these scams require victims to make a deposit before the loan can be disbursed.
Phishing scams are also a cause for concern.
Amy (not her real name), 40, a domestic worker from Myanmar, fell victim to a scam on Feb 20, 2020, when she received a call through messaging app Viber.
She spoke to a man who claimed to be a bank employee and wanted to "update" her ATM card.
She gave details such as her bank PIN.
After three hours on the phone, Amy sensed something was amiss and hung up.
She went to an ATM nearby and found that about $2,600 had been transferred out of her bank account.
"I had only $45 left in my account, my money was gone," she said.
Amy went to the bank the next day and was able to retrieve $1,700.
The police confirmed a report was lodged and that investigations are ongoing.
Amy said: "This whole experience made me very scared.
"The other day I received a call from someone with a Ministry of Manpower photo... But I never answer (now) if it's a number I don't know."
