Scam losses surge to S$1.1 billion in 2024, with crypto-related cases making up a quarter
The police said that the increase in the total amount lost was driven by a small number of cases with very high losses
THE TOTAL amount of money lost to scams surged 70.6 per cent to at least S$1.1 billion in 2024, from S$651.8 million in 2023, said the Singapore Police Force.
Losses from cryptocurrency-related scams accounted for just over a quarter of this figure, a spike from 6.8 per cent in 2023. The total number of scam cases increased by 10.6 per cent to 51,501 cases in 2024, from 46,563 cases in 2023.
There were increases in both the number of cases and the amount lost for phishing scams, investment scams and government-official-impersonation scams.
Among all scam types, e-commerce scams had the highest number of reported cases at 11,665, with at least S$17.5 million lost. Concert tickets were the top item involved in these scams.
Investment scams incurred the heaviest loss at S$320.7 million, or 28.8 per cent of the total amount lost to scams. In particular, cases which involved adding victims to messaging platforms such as Telegram or WhatsApp for “investment opportunities” were increasingly prevalent in 2024.
Messaging platforms, social media, phone calls and online shopping platforms were the top contact methods used by scammers. In particular, scam cases involving Telegram in 2024 spiked by 95.7 per cent, while Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram remained popular platforms exploited by scammers
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The police reported that although there was an increase in the amount lost to scams, the median loss per case fell 12.6 per cent to S$1,389 in 2024 from S$1,590 in 2023. More than 70 per cent of cases saw less than S$5,000 in losses.
They noted that the increase in the total amount lost was driven by a small number of cases with very high losses. Scam cases with losses of at least S$100,000 only made up 3.3 per cent of the total in 2024, but 70.8 per cent of the amount lost.
Out of these, four cases accounted for S$237.9 million in losses.
One of these was a malware-enabled scam, that amounted to about S$125 million losses in cryptocurrency. The victim of that case discovered unauthorised cryptocurrency transactions after clicking on fake interview meeting links and was asked to run a script on his laptop.
The script was a malicious code that targeted cryptocurrency wallets.
Another single case that led up to S$33.8 million losses in cryptocurrency was a phishing scam.
In that case, the victim chanced upon an advertisement offering lucrative rewards while browsing on a legitimate cryptocurrency wallet application. The advertisement redirected the victim to a third party site resembling the legitimate crypto wallet application’s company.
After scanning a QR code and providing crypto wallet login credentials, the victim subsequently discovered unauthorised cryptocurrency transactions.
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