19-year-old uses fake pass to pose as Monetary Authority of S'pore officer, gets arrested for scam

A 19-year-old man was arrested for his suspected involvement in a case of Government Officials Impersonation Scam on Sunday (July 16), said the police.

Chinese national Li Jiarui was in a flat at Block 353 Choa Chu Kang Central at around 9.30am when he allegedly posed as one “Lin Jiarui” and showed a woman what appeared to be a Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) pass under that name, reported The Straits Times.

The police received a 999 call for assistance to verify the identity of a purported government official who claimed to be acting under the office of MAS.

Through follow-up investigations, officers from Jurong Police Division and Commercial Affairs Department established the identity of the man and subsequently arrested him on the same day.

CAD officers seized several case exhibits such as a laptop, a printer, a brown envelope, a fake MAS pass, some scam-related documents, a debit card, some apparel, and an ink pad from Li’s residence.

Preliminary investigations revealed that he had allegedly printed a pass with the words “Monetary Authority of Singapore”. He later presented it and impersonated a MAS officer.

Li is also believed to have handed over some documents to the victim for her endorsement.

The teen was charged in court on Tuesday with the offence of cheating by personation, which carries an imprisonment term up to five years, a fine or both.

Li is now remanded at the Central Police Division and his case has been adjourned to July 25.

Between June 1 and July 12, at least 134 lost lost a total of at least $375,000 to scams involving the impersonation of government agency staff, said the police.

Victims would receive unsolicited phone calls or in-app calls allegedly from government agencies such as the Singapore Police Force (SPF) or the Ministry of Manpower (MOM).

The scammers would claim that there were issues with the victim’s bank accounts and required additional verification.

Victims would then be asked to provide their banking or personal information such as banking credentials and One-Time Passwords (OTPs) to resolve these issues.

Victims may also be asked to show their identity cards, work permit or their bank cards when speaking to the “SPF” or “MOM” officer over the in-app video call.

The victims would only discover that they had been scammed when they realised that there were unauthorised transactions made from their bank accounts.