The scam began with a WhatsApp message, the Singapore Police Force said in advisories issued last week. The profile photo belonged to Wong Hong Kuan, Singapore’s actual Secretary to the Cabinet. The message informed the victim, described by police only as a business professional, that he had been selected to attend a virtual meeting with the prime minister.<\/p>\n
He was asked to provide an email address, sign a non-disclosure agreement and submit a copy of his identification card. He did all three. An email followed, from the address WongHongKuan.secretarycabinet@proton.me, requesting urgent funding assistance for the government in connection with the Strait of Hormuz situation.<\/p>\n
“The email included what appeared to be an official government-issued letter of guarantee bearing PM Wong’s signature, stating that the funds would be reimbursed by the Singapore Government within 15 business days,” according to the Singapore Police Force.<\/p>\n
The Zoom video conference that followed was elaborate. The footage, later released by police, purportedly showed Wong, Tharman, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Indranee Rajah and representatives of the Monetary Authority of Singapore. Alongside them were figures from outside the country: Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand, the senior diplomatic adviser to the president of the United Arab Emirates, and executives of BlackRock and the Dubai International Financial Center, SCMP <\/em>reported.<\/p>\n The victim was introduced to the room as one of the private sector participants. The officials delivered what appeared to be a briefing on the Strait of Hormuz situation. A deepfake of Wong delivered closing remarks that acknowledged the victim’s attendance by name. None of the participants were real.<\/p>\n Shortly after the meeting ended, a second scammer made contact, this time posing as a lawyer, with instructions to transfer money to a corporate bank account. The businessman wired SGD4.9 million across multiple transactions. Only after the last transfer did he sense something was wrong. He contacted the actual Secretary to the Cabinet on May 14 and discovered he had been deceived, the Singapore Police Force said.<\/p>\n WhatsApp messages in a scam targetting a businessman in Singapore. Photo courtesy of the Singapore Police Force<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n In a statement on May 16, the police laid out three technical tells investigators identified in the released footage. Speech did not synchronize with the speakers’ lips, suggesting pre-recorded video with audio layered on top. The audio was broadcast through a single account throughout the call rather than through each participant. The background was distorted, and the Zoom logo was partially obscured and misaligned with the foreground.<\/p>\n “Deepfake AI fabrications can be sophisticated, and it can be difficult to differentiate between authentic and inauthentic content,” the police said, urging the public to exercise extra caution when contacted through virtual means.<\/p>\n Singapore recorded 37,308 scam cases in 2025, down from 51,501 the year before, according to Singapore Police Force figures released in February.<\/p>\n Scams still accounted for 88.9% of all scam and cybercrime cases reported. The Straits Times<\/em> has reported that AI-enabled impersonation, often through video and voice cloning, is the fastest-growing vector.<\/p>\n Speaking at the Anti-Scam Conference 2026, Singapore’s home affairs ministry called the new Cyber Command unit “the tip of the spear” against syndicates that increasingly operate like businesses, Channel News Asia<\/em> reported earlier this month.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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