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SINGAPORE: The police have arrested 38 people suspected of acting as money mules for scammers by selling or renting their YouTrip accounts for monetary gains.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Preliminary investigations revealed that the scammers had exploited multiple scam types to instruct victims to make multiple payments through YouTrip QR codes, said the Singapore Police Force (SPF) on Saturday (Nov 1).<\/p>\n
These included e-commerce scams, friend impersonation scams, job scams, government officials impersonation scams, investment scams and rental scams, said the police in a news release.<\/p>\n
The 38 suspects, aged between 15 and 52, were arrested during a four-day operation conducted between Oct 28 and Oct 31, said SPF.<\/p>\n
They were “arrested for allegedly selling or renting their payment accounts to criminal syndicates for monetary gains”.<\/p>\n
“Preliminary investigations revealed that they had also handed over their payment cards and login credentials to the scam syndicates to facilitate fund withdrawals.”<\/p>\n
Nine other people, aged between 16 and 55, are also being investigated, said the police.<\/p>\n
During the investigations, one of the suspects – a 55-year-old woman – was found to be a victim of an internet love scam who had opened a YouTrip account under the instructions of scammers, the police said.<\/p>\n
She lost around S$300,000 (US$231,000).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n