The total amount lost to various ruses is 70 per cent higher than the S$651.8 million scammers took in 2023. - ST
SINGAPORE: Scam victims in Singapore lost S$1.1 billion in 2024, marking a record high amount of losses suffered in a single year.
The total amount lost to various ruses is 70 per cent higher than the $651.8 million scammers took in 2023, said police in releasing annual scam figures on Feb 25.
In total, victims in Singapore have lost more than $3.4 billion to scams since 2019.
Police saw the highest number of scam reports ever in 2024, with 51,501 cases recorded compared to 46,563 cases the previous year.
Over 70 per cent of these cases involved less than $5,000 in losses. Police said the median loss per case is around $1,300.
The most common ruse in 2024 was e-commerce scams, with 11,665 reported cases and victims losing at least $17.5 million in total.
Around one in two victims was aged between 30 and 49 years old. Police said the concert ticket ruse contributed to the majority of e-commerce cases.
In such a ruse, victims are fooled into believing that they have paid for tickets which are then not delivered or discovered to be fake.
In March 2024, The Straits Times reported that at least 960 victims lost over $538,000 in just 10 weeks to Taylor Swift concert ticket scams.
Job scams continued to be among the top scams of concern in 2024, although there was a dip in the number of cases reported. In total, victims reported over 9,000 cases and lost $156.2 million.
Phishing scams rounded up the top three scams of concern in 2024 with $59.4 million lost, more than four times the amount lost the year before.
Police figures showed that over 70 per cent of scam victims were below 50 years old.
Young adults and those below 50 most commonly fell for e-commerce scams, while those aged 50 to 64 and the elderly mostly lost money in phishing scams.
Cryptocurrency losses made up about 24.3 per cent of total scam losses in 2024, compared to about 6.8 per cent of total amount lost in 2023.
Police said the total amount lost to scams in 2024 was driven by a “small number of cases with very high losses”, with four cases alone accounting for $237.9 million in losses.
One of the cases involved a business e-mail compromise ruse, with a commodities company in Singapore losing $57.2 million to scammers in July 2024.
Police said the firm had responded to an e-mail which they thought was from a vendor who was informing them of a change in bank account details for payment.
The firm made payment to the “updated” bank account, only to learn that it was a scam when they received a late payment notice from the actual vendor.
The fake bank account was traced to Timor-Leste. Around US$42 million (S$56 million) was recovered after the Anti-Scam Command, Interpol and Timor-Leste authorities intercepted, and nine arrests were made.
Police said that in more than three in four cases, victims had transferred sums of monies without scammers gaining direct control of their accounts.
They added that victims were manipulated into performing the monetary transactions, through deception and social engineering.
“In some of these cases, the individuals were so taken in by the scammers’ deceit, that they refused to believe that they were being scammed despite repeated advice from loved ones, their bank, and even the police,” said police.
The surge in reports of victims voluntarily handing their money to scammers prompted the Protection from Scams Bill, which was passed in Parliament in January 2025.
The law gives police powers to restrict individuals from transferring money out of their bank account, if there is reason to believe that they are likely to make transfers to scammers.
By imposing the restriction, the authorities have more time to convince would-be victims that they are being scammed.
Police said its Anti-Scam Command, which was operationalised in 2022 to combat scams, recovered over $182 million in scam losses and averted at least $483 million in potential losses in 2024.
Following numerous islandwide enforcement operations in 2024, police also charged more than 660 scammers and money mules in court.
Jeffrey Chin, deputy director of the Scam Public Education Office, said scammers will constantly find ways to push victims into making fast decisions.
Instead of rushing, people should stop, think and then act.
“We urge you to slow down, take a moment to check if you are unsure if something is a scam,” he added. - The Straits Times/ANN
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