SINGAPORE – Thirty-eight people, aged 15 and 52, were arrested over four days at the end of October for their suspected involvement in scams as money mules, the police said in a release on Nov 1.
They had allegedly sold or rented their payment accounts to criminal syndicates for monetary gain.
Another nine people, aged between 16 and 55, are being investigated for their involvement. One of these nine, a 55-year-old woman, had previously been an internet love scam victim who lost about $300,000.
The 47 people were rounded up after an operation by officers from the Commercial Affairs Department and the seven Police Land Divisions from Oct 28 and 31.
The arrests follow a surge in scam cases in September and October, where victims reported losing money through fraudulent PayNow QR codes
generated through YouTrip,
said the police.
Preliminary investigations showed that scammers had exploited multiple scam types, including e-commerce scams, friend impersonation scams, job scams, government officials impersonation scams, investment scams and rental scams, to instruct victims to make multiple payments through YouTrip QR codes.
The police said that scammers generated PayNow QR codes through the YouTrip platform and sent them to victims. The scammers claimed the codes were required for legitimate payments or account verification.
When victims scanned these codes using their internet banking applications and confirmed the transactions, their money was transferred directly into the scammers’ YouTrip e-wallets.
