Victims lost at least $32.6m to scams since January, police urge vigilance
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More than 470 cases of investment scams have been reported since January 2025.
ST PHOTO: KELVIN CHNG
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SINGAPORE – At least $32.6 million were lost to investment scams since January 2025, with police urging members of the public to remain vigilant.
More than 470 cases of such scams have been reported, police said in an advisory on Feb 11.
Victims were approached through social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, as well as messaging and dating applications such as Telegram, WhatsApp and Coffee Meets Bagel.
“Scammers would build rapport with victims to gain their trust before introducing ‘investment opportunities’, which may involve cryptocurrencies,” police said in the advisory.
In these cases, the scammers would then persuade the victims to transfer their cryptocurrencies to fraudulent cryptocurrency trading platforms, or scammer’s wallets.
Some victims would initially receive small profits, to deceive them to continue investing, police added. Fake “investment” websites or applications would display allegedly growing “profits” made by the victims, to lead them to invest larger sums.
In other cases, victims encountered investment advertisements on social media platforms featuring supposed endorsements from political figures or celebrities.
After clicking the links on these advertisements, the victims would be led to messaging platforms to contact the scammers.
“In other cases, victims were redirected to fraudulent trading platforms instead and prompted to provide their personal particulars, such as contact details and card details to register for an account,” police said.
“These victims would then receive phone calls or messages from scammers posing as staff from investment companies or brokers.”
Additionally, scammers gained some victims by adding them to chat groups or channels, such as on messaging platform Telegram.
“To lure victims into believing that the investment is authentic and profitable, these chat groups or channels may associate themselves with famous individuals or reputable companies or have other ‘members’ in the chat group attest to the profits they have made from the investments,” police said.
Victims who reached out to the scammers would be offered various investment plans and asked for their personal information to join the “investment”.
Scammers may also use “investment” websites or applications to display “profits” to reinforce their scam.
Most of the victims realised they had been scammed when they could not withdraw their profits despite transferring increasingly large sums as fees incurred for their “investment”.
Scammers would also become uncontactable in some cases.
Police advised members of the public to be cautious when making investment decisions and to take precautionary steps to avoid being scammed.
This includes:
Setting up or activating security features, such as the privacy function, which prevents unknown users from adding them to chat groups;
Checking for scam signs with official sources or websites and verifying the authenticity of the investment company; and
Telling authorities, as well as family and friends, if or when they encounter scams.
Members of the public can also reach out to the ScamShield Helpline at 1799 if they are in doubt.
