SINGAPORE \u2013 Thinking she had found her \u201clifelong partner\u201d, a single mother sold her flat and transferred the earnings together with her life savings worth over $120,000 into a scammer\u2019s cryptocurrency wallet. <\/p>\n
Even though they had never met and had not had any video calls together, she still packed up her belongings, withdrew her two children from school and was about to begin a new life abroad with her \u201clover\u201d. <\/p>\n
A day before her flight, Assistant Superintendent of\u00a0Police (ASP) Lee Hua Sheng from the Anti-Scam Command\u2019s (ASC) Crypto Tracing Team (CTT) asked her to go to the ASC office, as he suspected she was\u00a0a\u00a0scam\u00a0victim.<\/p>\n
Her bank had alerted ASC about the suspicious transactions, which prompted ASP Lee to contact her. She told him that her \u201clover\u201d had been ignoring her messages.<\/p>\n
The CTT is only eight months old, having been operationalised in March to address the threat of scam proceeds dissipating through virtual assets like cryptocurrency.<\/p>\n
Almost a quarter\u00a0of the\u00a0<\/p>\n $1.1 billion lost to scams in 2024<\/p>\n <\/a>\u00a0involved cryptocurrency, with one victim losing $125 million in cryptocurrency funds in a malware-enabled scam.<\/p>\n Providing support to scam victims is one part of ASP Lee\u2019s job as a senior investigation officer at the CTT. He described his role as that of a \u201chuman firewall\u201d, to detect scams and protect victims.<\/p>\n ASP Desmond Chia, who is the officer-in-charge of the CTT, said the team was formed because of an increase in cryptocurrency adoption. <\/p>\n ASP Chia said: \u201cGlobally, people are more attuned to cryptocurrency, and it is a trend which scammers have also noticed.\u201d<\/p>\n He added that cryptocurrency is an efficient way for scammers to launder funds without having to go through banks. <\/p>\n Both officers were speaking to reporters at the Police Cantonment Complex on Nov 6.<\/p>\n In the first half of 2025, <\/p>\n more than<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n $81.6 million in cryptocurrency was lost to scams<\/p>\n <\/a>.<\/p>\n Tether, Bitcoin and Ethereum were the top cryptocurrencies in which scam victims reported to have lost sums.<\/p>\n Recounting the incident with the woman, ASP Lee said she had met her \u201clover\u201d online, and they had been communicating through WhatsApp messages and voice calls for a year. <\/p>\n But she had never seen his face.<\/p>\n ASP Lee said: \u201cI conducted a blockchain analysis and traced the funds. We saw the funds move out of her wallet, and laundered through multiple scam-linked addresses.\u201d<\/p>\n A blockchain is a system used to keep records of transactions, especially those involving cryptocurrency.<\/p>\n ASP Lee added: \u201cPresenting the findings to her was one of the hardest things I had ever done. The moment the harsh truth hit her, the scammer\u2019s silence and avoidance suddenly made sense (to her), and she burst into tears.\u201d<\/p>\n ASP Lee spent about three hours talking to the woman, who did not realise then that she had avoided a worse fate.<\/p>\n ASP Lee said: \u201cIf she had gone ahead and flown to a foreign country, she would have been stranded with her two young children, with no money.\u201d <\/p>\n ASP Lee later contacted the woman\u2019s family and advised them on how to support her. <\/p>\n He said: \u201cShe is in a better state now, trying to recover from this episode and move on with her life.\u201d <\/p>\n ASP Lee said fraudsters can exploit victims\u2019 lack of knowledge about cryptocurrency. <\/p>\n For instance, scammers can sometimes pose as teachers or mentors offering to help victims invest in cryptocurrency, but instead<\/p>\n guide them to put their funds in fake platforms<\/p>\n <\/a>.<\/p>\n Officers in the CTT are trained to focus on real-time operations to stop scams in progress. <\/p>\n Their daily work includes conducting live blockchain analysis to trace wallet movements, coordinating fund freezing and recovery, and engaging scam victims to prevent them from transferring their funds to fraudsters.<\/p>\n On selecting officers to join the CTT, ASP Chia said candidates must be interested in cryptocurrency, owing to the technicalities involved in crypto-tracing.<\/p>\n One of the primary differences between tracing cryptocurrency and tracing physical funds is how transparent cryptocurrency transactions are. These transactions are recorded in a blockchain, which is more easily accessible than bank transactions, where information has to be obtained from the bank. <\/p>\n ASP Chia said: \u201cIf we have a fund transfer from DBS to UOB, and then to OCBC, we have to go to all three banks to get information about the movement of funds. <\/p>\n \u201cOnce cryptocurrency is transferred into the blockchain, we can trace its movement from one wallet to another, as long as it stays within the blockchain.\u201d <\/p>\n However, it is difficult to find the owners of the crypto wallets, as these wallets can be created by anyone. Blockchain transactions are also irreversible, which puts pressure on CTT officers to get to the funds before the transactions are finalised. <\/p>\n In the first half of 2025, the ASC recovered more than $56.7 million of scam losses, which included $39.7 million in non-cryptocurrency and $17 million in\u00a0cryptocurrency.<\/p>\n ASP Chia said the CTT is working on developing protocols with its partners and international law enforcement agencies to speed up the cross-border recovery of funds. <\/p>\n It is also looking into automation to streamline its work processes, and making use of enhanced analytics for quicker wallet identification.<\/p>\n With cryptocurrency usage expanding, ASP Lee urged members of the public to know what they are investing in. <\/p>\n He said: \u201cDon\u2019t invest blindly, and invest only what you can afford to lose. So many times we have seen victims pour their life savings (into investments), and that is very dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n