Woman, 25, arrested after 77-year-old fraud victim deposited $250,000 into DBS account

The 25-year-old woman, who allegedly sold Singpass credentials and bank accounts for $600, was arrested by the Commercial Affairs Department.

The Anti-Fraud Center worked with the Singpass Anti-Fraud Team and DBS Bank to prevent a scam, resulting in the recovery of $250,000.

The case began in October when a 77-year-old woman received a phone call from someone claiming to be a “staff” of Standard Chartered Bank.

He was informed that a credit card had been issued in his name and that many unauthorized transactions had been made on this card.

The woman was then referred to an “officer” from the Monetary Authority of Singapore for assistance.

After speaking to the “officer” on the phone, the woman was told that her credit card magnetic stripe had been compromised and was asked to disclose personal information, including bank account balances and online banking credentials, to resolve the issue.

Following instructions from the “officer” to withdraw the money and deposit it into a DBS bank account for “further investigations”, he deposited a check for $250,000 into the DBS bank account and made further deposits of $40,000 into other bank accounts.

The $250,000 deposit was immediately detected by the DBS Anti-Mule Team as the DBS bank account was flagged as a suspicious account due to anti-fraud measures.

The team quickly worked with the Singapore Police Force’s Anti-Fraud Center to trace and intercept the funds. Simultaneously, officers from the center contacted the woman and successfully convinced her of the fraud.

$250,000 was recovered.

Investigations later revealed that the DBS bank account belonged to the 25-year-old woman, who allegedly sold her Singpass credentials and bank accounts for $600.

These credentials were used by criminals to open new bank accounts, facilitating the laundering of illicit proceeds from scams.

He was later arrested.

The crime of assisting another to obtain the benefit of criminal conduct carries a penalty of up to three years’ imprisonment or a fine, or both.

The crime of facilitating unauthorized access to computer material carries, on a first conviction, a prison sentence of up to two years, a fine, or both.

The offense of unlawfully disclosing the password or access code for the national digital identity service carries a penalty of imprisonment of up to three years, a fine, or both.

Investigations continue.