Surge in scam calls impersonating ICA officers between April and June

SINGAPORE - There has been a surge in the number of scam calls from individuals claiming to be officers from the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) between April and June 2024.

The authority said in an advisory on July 5 that about 500 cases of such scam calls were reported during this period – four times more than the number reported between January and March.

According to ICA, the scam calls usually originate from spoofed ICA numbers, as well as unknown numbers. These may or may not contain the + prefix, and are conducted in either English or Mandarin.

The callers would identify themselves as ICA officers and claim that there were issues with the victim’s passport, identity card or citizenship applications, or claim that the victim’s information was being used overseas for illicit activities.

ICA reiterated that government officials, including its own officers, will never request members of the public to provide banking details including one-time passwords, click on links that lead to bank websites, or install apps or software from third-party websites.

Officials will also not ask for money to be transferred to bank accounts – any payments made to ICA should only be done via its official webpage or e-services.

“ICA officers who call members of the public would make references to a specific application reference number and/or service applied by the individual,” it said, adding that all correspondence will otherwise be conducted through official government e-mail addresses.

“We encourage the public who have information relating to such scams or are in doubt to call the police hotline on 1800-255-0000, or submit it online at

https://www.police.gov.sg/i-witness

. All information will be kept strictly confidential.”

Those who require urgent police assistance can dial 999.

For more information on scams, members of the public can visit www.scamalert.sg or call the Anti-Scam Helpline on 1800-722-6688.

In June, the police said that at least 126 victims have lost a total of

at least $16.3 million since the start of 2024

to government official impersonation scams.

The same month, Singapore Customs also warned the public about a

new impersonation scam

involving fake documents falsely attributed to Singapore Customs director-general Tan Hung Hooi and falsely bearing the agency’s logo.

Scams in Singapore hit a record high in 2023,

with 46,563 reported cases – the highest number of cases since the police started tracking them in 2016. Scam victims in Singapore lost $651.8 million in 2023, bringing the total to more than $2.3 billion since 2019.