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SINGAPORE, Nov 16 \u2014 Singapore police have issued public reminders to alert after scammers duped victims out of more than S$1 million (RM\u202f3.18 million) through a bogus \u201cJohor-Singapore Housing Subsidy\u201d programme in the past two months.<\/p>\n
At least 21 cases have been reported since September, new outlet CNA<\/em> reported the Singapore Police Force (SPF) as saying last Friday.<\/p>\n The scheme was promoted online with posts claiming to offer subsidised housing under the so-called \u201cJBSG Housing Subsidy Program\u201d or \u201cFree Homes Across the Causeway\u201d on platforms such as Facebook and WhatsApp.<\/p>\n \u201cThese advertisements falsely claim a collaboration between the Singapore and Johor governments to provide subsidised housing and contain embedded links for applications,\u201d the SPF was quoted as saying.<\/p>\n Some ads even showed forged documents with signatures allegedly from the prime ministers of Singapore and Malaysia.<\/p>\n Victims who clicked the links were directed to WhatsApp, where they were asked to provide personal information including their identification card numbers, addresses and email addresses.\u00a0<\/p>\n They were then instructed to transfer money online for supposed \u201clegal and stamp duties\u201d or hand over cash to unknown individuals.<\/p>\n SPF said that the housing subsidy initiative does not exist and warned that sharing personal information could lead to further scams.<\/p>\n It advised the public not to share sensitive details or send money to anyone unknown, urging everyone to verify the authenticity of such schemes before taking any action.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n