Since January, scammers have been pretending to be friends of victims and cheated them of more than S$1.2 million, said the Singapore Police Force (SPF) on Friday (Mar 11).

SPF said there had been a resurgence of the phishing scam where scammers would contact victims through phone calls pretending to be someone they knew and then ask for financial assistance.

“Upon picking up these calls, the callers would not identify themselves. Instead, they would ask the victims questions such as: ‘Guess who am I? You can’t remember me?’ said SPF in an earlier release on the same scam.

Victims would then think that the caller was someone they knew and reply with the name of an actual friend with a similar voice.

After that, the caller would assume the identity of the said friend and claim to have lost their handphone or changed their contact number.

“The caller would contact the victims subsequently asking for a loan due to financial difficulties or having gotten into trouble with the law,” said SPF.

The scammers would give a bank account or phone number to transfer money to.

The victims would only discover they have been scammed after contacting their real friends.

In recent cases, the victims received phone calls from unknown numbers with the “+” prefix.

The public is advised to be cautious towards this type of number, especially if they aren’t expecting an international call.

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