Police gets 2 reports of 'kidnapping' on same day, man pointed knife at victim in videos to fake it

The police received two separate reports that a 19-year-old woman and a 21-year-old man were kidnapped on Jan 17.

Officers from Clementi Police Division, Criminal Investigation Department, Police Intelligence Department and Anti-Scam Command conducted extensive follow-up investigations and tracked down the victims within 12 hours of the reports.

They were subsequently established to be victims of what the police call the "China officials impersonation" scam.

Two men, aged 21 and 25, have been arrested for their suspected involvement in the two cases.

In the first case, the female victim had received an unsolicited call on Oct 31 last year, purportedly from an Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) officer.

She was then routed to another scammer claiming to be a police officer from China, who alleged that her particulars were used to sign up for a bank card involved in money laundering activities in China.

The scammer further told the female victim that to avoid being arrested and deported, she had to furnish monies as bail and case resolution. Preliminary investigations revealed that the victim had transferred more than $230,000 to the bank accounts of the "China police".

As part of the purported ongoing investigations, the female victim was made to report to the “China police” through video calls over a messaging application on her mobile phone five times daily.

In early January, the scammer asked the female victim to assist in the ongoing investigation by recording a video of herself being tied up and pretending that she was captured. She was told that the video would be used to spread scam awareness.

The scammer arranged for the video recording to be facilitated by a 25-year-old man who also acted in the staged kidnap scene where he pointed a kukri knife at the female victim to make the video more convincing.

About a week later, the scammer instructed the female victim to isolate herself in a safehouse arranged by the man and cease communication with others, including her parents, to facilitate their investigations.

In the second case, the male victim similarly received an unsolicited call sometime in early November last year, purportedly from an ICA officer.

The male victim was accused of having a Chinese mobile number that was associated in the spread of Covid-related rumours in China.

He was then routed to another scammer claiming to be a police officer from China, who further alleged that he was involved in money-laundering activities.

Acting under the instructions of the scammer, the male victim transferred about $215,000 into bank accounts provided by the scammer, on the pretext that it was for bail.

As with the first case, in early January, the scammer asked the male victim to record a video of himself being tied up and pretending that he was captured as part of scam education.

The video recording was similarly facilitated by the same man who was seen to be pointing a kukri knife at the male victim and demanding a ransom. The victim was spotted with bruises all over his body.

On Jan 15, the scammer instructed the male victim to isolate himself at a safehouse rented by the 21-year-old man, where he was eventually located.

Unbeknownst to the two victims, the scammers had sent the purported scam education videos to threaten their parents and demand a ransom.

The parents of the victims, who were based in China, received videos of the victims being tied up with ransom demands
from unknown persons communicating in Mandarin. The victims’ parents contacted their friends in Singapore, who in turn reported the incidents to the police.

Preliminary investigations revealed that the two men had acted on the scammers’ instructions to book and rent units for the victims and exchanged the victims’ mobile phones with new mobile phones and SIM cards so that the victims could not be reached by anyone, except the scammers.

Case exhibits such as the kukri and ropes used in the video were seized.

Police investigations are ongoing.