SINGAPORE: Three people aged between 16 and 31 were arrested for their suspected involvement in fake bulk order scams involving the impersonation of army personnel from the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF), the police said on Tuesday (Sep 16).
Since Sep 4, at least five cases have been reported, with total losses amounting to at least S$32,000 (US$25,000), read the news release.
The Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) said on Sunday that the SAF had observed a number of fake bulk orders made by people claiming to be its personnel. MINDEF said that it was aware of seven such cases and had made police reports.
Affected businesses included Breaditation Bakery, Kiki Florist and a hawker stall in Tiong Bahru Market, which had prepared 150 packets of chicken and mutton briyani before realising the order was a hoax.
Over Monday and Tuesday, police officers conducted raids near Middle Road, Woodlands Street 81 and Cantonment Road, which led to the arrest of the three suspects. Several electronic devices and prepaid cards were seized.
“Preliminary investigations revealed that the trio had allegedly acted on the instructions of a scam syndicate to facilitate the perpetration of this scam variant,” the police said.
The 16-year-old male teenager and the 22-year-old woman had allegedly relinquished their bank accounts to the scam syndicate for monetary gains, while another 31-year-old man had assisted unknown individuals to subscribe to phone lines.
Some of these lines were found to be linked to the scam cases, said the police.
