At least S$3.6 million lost in investment scams involving chat groups since May

SINGAPORE: Victims have lost at least S$3.6 million (US$2.8 million) since May this year to investment scams involving chat groups that claimed to offer free opportunities to learn investing.

At least 48 cases have been reported since last month, the police said in an advisory on Thursday (Jun 4).

This scam variant involves luring victims using fake social media advertisements that purportedly offer opportunities to learn about investing.

Those who expressed interest would be invited to join a WhatsApp chat group, where scammers posed as "mentors", providing advice or "bonuses" to entice the victims to start investing.

Other "members" in the chat groups would also share screenshots of purported trading profits, the police said.

Victims would then be instructed to create investment accounts through fraudulent websites or by downloading fraudulent applications from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store.

The victims would then be asked to transfer money to specified bank accounts.

"In some cases, victims were instructed to hand over cash or gold to unknown persons posing as staff from the investment company, who would provide victims with 'invoices' upon receipt of the valuables," the police added.

The police said scammers would sometimes also provide victims with initial returns - to create a false sense of legitimacy - as they further deceived them into investing more money.

"Victims only realised they had been scammed when they were unable to withdraw their 'profits' or when the scammers became uncontactable," the police added.

Members of the public are advised to not transfer or hand over money or valuables to unknown persons whose identities have not been verified.

The police also urged the public to activate security features on their devices, check for scam signs with official sources, as well as verify the authenticity of investment companies and representatives through the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s Financial Institutions Directory, Register of Representatives and Investor Alert List.