Two arrested for suspected roles in govt official impersonation scams; one victim lost over $400,000

SINGAPORE – Two Malaysian men, aged 22 and 38, have been arrested for their suspected roles in separate government official impersonation scams.

In one of these cases, the victim lost more than $400,000.

In a statement on Nov 9, the police said they received a report on Nov 7 about the 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 for 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 re-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 people – believed to be part of a transnational scam syndicate – to collect cash and valuables from scam victims, the police said.

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

Both men were set 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 and headline, we incorrectly said the two men were arrested for allegedly posing as government officials. We are sorry for the error.

PoliceCrimeScamsInternet crimes and scams