SINGAPORE – In the first successful joint collaboration this year between the Singapore Police Force (SPF) and Royal Malaysia Police, two transnational love scam syndicates were dismantled.
In a release on Saturday (April 30), SPF said the joint operation happened after two women, both 46, had lodged reports they were victims of Internet love scams.
They had lost $15,000 and $20,000 respectively.
The first woman had met a man through a dating application in March last year, and they started a relationship. He claimed to be a United States citizen working in Singapore as a petroleum engineer.
The man then claimed he needed money to pay for equipment and custom clearance fees, saying his bank account had been frozen.
The woman transferred $15,000 to a bank account he provided, but he kept asking for more money, and she then realised it was a scam.
The second woman also met a man through a dating application, in February this year. He claimed to be a geologist who was going to meet her in Singapore.
On March 6, he asked for $20,000 to pay for his expenses in Singapore, and she transferred him the money. Two weeks later, he asked for another $20,000.
But this time she refused.
Both women filed police reports in March and April this year respectively.
The SPF’s Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) then worked with Malaysia’s Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) to track down the scammers.
They learnt the scammers were from two transnational syndicates based in Malaysia.
On April 22 and 23, a team of six officers from Singapore’s Anti-Scam Command and the CCID raided two apartments in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur.
They arrested six African men aged 28 to 40 and seized laptops, mobile phones and credit cards.
