7 men arrested for selling and renting bank accounts to scammers

Seven men, aged between 18 and 34, were arrested for their suspected involvement in carrying out various scams.

The scams include fake friend call scams, investment scams, job scams, rental scams and government officials impersonation scams (GOIS), the police said in a statement on Friday morning (June 23).

The seven men were alleged to have made deals with criminal syndicates over Telegram or Facebook over the sale or rental of bank accounts, or cheating banks into opening new bank accounts to sell or rent them to criminal syndicates.

The suspects received between $500 to $900 per bank account.

One of the men was alleged to have sold his SingPass credentials for $300 to criminal syndicates to create new bank accounts and other accounts.

All seven men will be charged in court on Friday for their suspected involvement in various offences connected to money mule activities which include cheating, money laundering and facilitation of unauthorised access to computer material.

The offence of cheating carries a jail term of up to three years, a fine or both.

Those convicted of money laundering will face up to 10 years' jail, a fine of up to $500,000 or both.

The offence of facilitating unauthorised access to computer material carries a jail term of up to two years, a fine or both.

Those who provide unauthorised disclosure of access codes will face up to three years' jail, a fine of up to $10,000, or both.

The police said that they take a serious view of persons who may be involved in scams and frauds, and perpetrators will be dealt with in accordance with the law.

For more information on scams, members of the public can visit scamalert.sg or call the Anti-Scam Hotline at 1800-722-6688. Anyone with information on such scams may call the Police Hotline at 1800-255 0000 or submit information online at www.police.gov.sg/iwitness.