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SINGAPORE \u2013 A Malaysian man was arrested on March 19 for suspected involvement in scams involving the impersonation of government officials, with a total of six Malaysians nabbed for similar ruses within two weeks.<\/p>\n
The 21-year-old man is due to be charged on March 20 with assisting another to retain benefits from criminal conduct.<\/p>\n
The police said on March 19 that they have \u201cobserved an increasing trend of Malaysian nationals travelling to Singapore to assist scam syndicates in collecting cash, gold and valuables from scam victims\u201d.<\/p>\n
In the latest case, the police said they received a report on Jan 29 from a victim who got a call from an unknown individual claiming to be from HSBC.<\/p>\n
The caller allegedly informed the victim that there were unauthorised charges on an HSBC card registered under the victim\u2019s name. <\/p>\n
When the victim denied having an HSBC credit card, her call was purportedly transferred to individuals claiming to be from the Ministry of Law. <\/p>\n
\u201cThese impersonators created a sense of urgency and fear, falsely claiming the victim was under investigation for money laundering,\u201d the police said.<\/p>\n
They then convinced the victim to hand over her gold bracelets and jewellery, worth more than $80,000, for \u201csafekeeping\u201d during their fabricated investigation, the police added. <\/p>\n
She later realised that she had been scammed and lodged a police report. <\/p>\n
The man is suspected of being involved in at least two other government official impersonation scam cases, the police said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n