Lee Pey Ying (“Lee”), a 31-year-old woman, was convicted in court on September 27, 2021 for her role in a series of China official impersonation scams.
The Commercial Affairs Department received complaints from numerous victims of a China Officials Impersonation Scam (COIS) in July 2020. Scammers posing as officials from Singapore’s “Ministry of Health” (“MOH”) fraudulently misled elderly victims that their medicine supplies were being held by customs.
These deliveries were not requested by the victims. Scammers imitating Chinese police officers and prosecutors later diverted the calls, accusing the victims of being implicated in financial crimes. Two victims sent a 20-year-old PRC lady named Zhou Ying (“Zhou”) at least $300,000 to help with the bogus investigations.
Zhou was approached in a similar fashion on June 29, 2020, according to investigations. She got an unwanted phone call from an anonymous caller posing as a representative from the Ministry of Health. The call was then sent to individuals posing as Chinese police officers. Zhou was informed that she was a subject of interest in ongoing criminal investigations by a man who identified himself as “Officer Lin” and urged her to cooperate in the “investigations.” Officer Lin directed Zhou to do the following tasks:
additional victims by printing and delivering papers bearing the Monetary Authority of Singapore (“MAS”) logo;
gather “proof” from the victims;
Lee should be given the “evidence.”
The money that the victims had withdrawn from their bank accounts was the “proof” that Zhou gathered and handed to Lee.
Zhou met a female victim on July 8, 2020, and took a package containing S$100,000 from her. Lee received this package from Zhou. Zhou met another female victim on July 17, 2020, and took a package containing S$200,000 from her. Zhou, on the other hand, met Lee and handed her the package.
Lee was eventually caught by the Police and the investigations lead back to her she was sentenced for 23 months in jail.
A 28-year-old guy has been apprehended on suspicion of being involved in a series of e-commerce frauds.
Multiple reports of victims were being made after they were duped by an internet vendor who offered mobile phones for sale on Carousell. The reports were made recently in September.
The victims were reportedly duped by the vendor into paying a total of $10,600 to the seller. The vendor allegedly became uncontactable after collecting money from the victims.
the individual will be prosecuted with cheating under Section 420 of the Penal Code in court. The crime carries a penalty of up to ten years in jail and a fine.
The police want to warn the public about a new fraud in which victims are duped into registering e-wallets on bogus websites after selling their gaming accounts on social networking platforms.
In some situations, the fraudsters showed interest in acquiring the victims’ gaming accounts and instructed them to visit phony websites (such as baowushouyou.com, bianjieshouyou.com, 85shouyou.com, xinyushouyou.com, and others) to create e-wallets and receive money.
During the account application process, victims would come across a “Terms and Conditions” page that said that if their account registration form included mistakes, they would be charged a fee. Victims would get WhatsApp calls or messages from numbers that started with “+6011” after they set up their e-wallet.
The caller, who usually spoke in Mandarin, pretended to be a customer service representative from an e-wallet company and informed the victims that their account had been frozen owing to mistakes in their account application. Victims were then told to make a money transfer to one of the given bank accounts in order to have their e-wallet accounts unfrozen so they could withdraw the monies. Victims were misled to believe that they had indeed made a mistake in their account application and thus complied with the instructions to make payment to individual bank accounts to unfreeze their accounts.
Victims were sometimes instructed to send more money since the quantity transmitted was wrong. Victims will realize they have been duped when they are unable to withdraw funds from their e-wallet and the buyer is no longer reachable.
The Police are appealing for the next-of-kin of 61-year-old Mdm Tang Siu Ling to come forward.
Mdm Tang, a former resident of Blk 318 Ang Mo Kio Ave 1, had passed away on 23 September 2021.
Anyone with information is requested to call the Police hotline at 1800-255-0000 or submit information online at www.police.gov.sg/iwitness. All information will be kept strictly confidential.
