Two men arrested for allegedly posing as MAS and MinLaw officials to scam victim out of more than $400k

SINGAPORE – Two Malaysian men, aged 22 and 38, were arrested for allegedly posing as government officials to scam a woman out of over $400,000.

In a statement on Nov 9, the police said they received a report on Nov 7 about impersonation of government officials from the Ministry of Law (MinLaw) and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).

The victim, the police said, had received a call from someone claiming to be from a bank, and this person informed her that a credit card had been applied in her name.

When the victim refuted the claim, the call was transferred to conmen posing as officials from MinLaw and MAS, who claimed that the victim was implicated in a money laundering case.

The conmen then showed her fake staff passes from MinLaw and MAS, along with other supporting documents, via WhatsApp, to lend credibility to the deception, the police said.

The victim was instructed to transfer $1 million from one of her bank accounts to her credit card.

Later, the conmen told her to use the credit card to buy gold worth more than $412,000 at Mustafa Centre, and hand the gold over to an unknown person on the same day.

“The victim lodged a police report after realising that something was amiss,” the police said.

Officers from the Anti-Scam Command of the Commercial Affairs Department established the identity of the unknown person as a 38-year-old man, and he was arrested when he entered Singapore on Nov 8.

Separately, a 22-year-old man who was involved in similar cases in Singapore was also arrested on the same day, the police added.

Early investigations suggested that both men were tasked by unknown persons – believed to be part of a transnational scam syndicate – to collect cash and valuables from other scam victims, the police said.

The men would then hand over the cash and valuables to others, whose identities remain unknown.

Both men are likely to be charged on Nov 10. If found guilty, they could be jailed for up to 10 years, fined up to $500,000, or both.

The police said there has been a rising trend of Malaysians travelling to Singapore to assist scam syndicates in collecting cash, gold and valuables from scam victims.

People need to remain vigilant and not transfer or hand over money and valuables to unknown people whose identities have not been verified, or leave these somewhere to be collected, the police said.

Government officials, the police added, will not ask people to transfer money, disclose banking details or install mobile apps from unofficial app stores over the phone.

If in doubt, the public can call the ScamShield helpline on 1799 to check.

Those with information on scams can call the police hotline on 1800-255-0000, or submit information online at

All information will be kept confidential, the police said.

Correction note: In an earlier version of the story, we said that the victim was scammed of nearly $1.5 million. The police has clarified that she was scammed out of more than $400,000.

PoliceCrimeScamsInternet crimes and scams