Asia (Commonwealth Union)_ Despite numerous media reports and warnings by the authorities about scams, the Singaporean police received 46,563 scam cases in 2023, up about 46.8 percent from 2022, according to statistics from the police on Sunday.
Scam victims in Singapore lost $651.8m in 2023, with record high of over 46,000 cases reported.
The police told The Straits Times on 18th February that this is the highest number of scam cases since they started tracking them in 2016. The 2023 figure is up 46.8 per cent from the 31,728 cases in 2022.
In total, scam victims in Singapore lost $651.8 million in 2023, a slight dip from the $660.7 million lost to scammers in 2022. The total amount lost among the top 10 scams rose in 2023 to $573.9 million, from $509.2 million in 2022.
The police noted that scam victims lost 651.8 million Singapore dollars (484 million U.S. dollars) last year, a slight dip from 660.7 million Singapore dollars lost in 2022.
Data showed that the top five scams were phishing scams, fake friend call scams, job scams, e-commerce scams and investment scams.
The Singaporean police conducted 24 state-wide enforcement activities last year, against scams, leading to the investigation of more than 9,600 money mules and scam suspects, according to the data.
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The annual figures released by the police on 18th February mean that over $2.3 billion has been lost to scams since 2019.
Malware scams, were in the top 10 scams of concern in 2023. Of which there were 1,899 such cases reported, with $34.1 million lost.
The most common ruse victims fell prey to was job scams, with 9,914 cases reported and at least $135.7 million lost in total, up from $117.4 million in 2022.
Over 45% of job scam victims were between 30 to 49 years old, with scammers often contacting them via Telegram and WhatsApp.
The police said that victims were offered online jobs working from home where their tasks included liking social media posts, reviewing hotels and restaurants, and completing surveys.
To receive their commissions, victims had to transfer money to bank accounts provided by scammers. They would realise they had been scammed only when they stopped receiving commissions or could no longer contact the scammers.
The Straits Times reported in October 2023, that a single mother of two took up a marketing job through a Facebook advertisement and lost around $89,000 in a week to scammers.
The second scam of concern was e-commerce scams, which more than doubled in 2023 with 9,783 cases, with an increase of around 4,700 in 2022 where victims lost at least $13.9 million in 2023, down from $21.3 million in 2022.
One e-commerce scam involved concert tickets, which saw a resurgence in 2023 when more acts, like Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift and Coldplay, announced performances in Singapore.
In July 2023, ST reported that at least 54 victims lost over $45,000 in less than a week trying to get tickets to Swift’s The Eras Tour, due to be held here over six nights in March 2024.
A new variant of e-commerce scams emerged in 2023 involving items such as durians and wagyu beef sold online at huge discounts. Victims would lose money when scammers asked for delivery fees, goodwill deposits, or reservation fees.
Almost half of e-commerce scam victims were aged 30 to 49, and the two most common platforms used by scammers were Facebook and Carousell.
Fake friend call scams were also of concern while in 2020, no cases were reported, in 2023, 6,859 cases were reported, up from the 2,106 in 2022.
Over $23 million was lost to this scam in 2023, with most victims between the ages of 50 and 64 through phone calls and WhatsApp being the most common channels being used by such scammers to deceive victims.
While many would think that older adults and the elderly would more likely fall for scams, the overall statistics debunked the belief with 73% of scam victims aged below 50.
Young adults between the ages of 20 to 29 mostly fell prey to job scams, while those between the ages of 30 to 49 mostly lost money to e-commerce scams.
The elderly, aged 65 and above, made up 7.1% of scam victims. More than a third of them were victims of fake friend call scams and over 13% for investment scams.
Separately, Singapore’s Anti-Scam Command, which consolidates resources and expertise across all police units here, also participated in an operation with global police cooperation agency Interpol.
Over 2,000 individuals were investigated and more than 5,300 bank accounts frozen in the Republic, leading to more than $11.5 million recovered.
Commercial Affairs Department director David Chew said the global environment has changed, with technology making it easier for scammers to target victims and steal their money. He said that human nature has not changed, they are still driven by the desire for connection which is why some still fall prey to love scams while they desire to make a quick buck, being the reason some fall prey to investment scams and job scams.
“So, our job is to ensure people are aware of the dangers, and not get scammed in the first place.
