SINGAPORE — The police have warned the public of an investment scam where fraudsters impersonate representatives of Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC, and offer “lucrative” investment deals.
In an advisory on Thursday (April 28), the police said victims typically receive an invitation to join a group chat on the mobile messaging platform Telegram called the “Government of Singapore Investment Corporation”.
The scammers operating the chat group would not only claim to be from GIC, but that they also had lucrative investment packages on offer, said the police, noting that GIC does not offer investment services to the public.
“To reinforce the ruse, scammers would utilise the GIC logo and claim to be investors who have successfully withdrawn the profits made from their investment packages,” said the police.
Victims keen to invest in these packages are then directed to provide their personal particulars and bank account number to sign up for the packages, the police said.
After that, the victims would be asked to transfer money into bank accounts provided by the scammers.
Victims typically realise they have been scammed only when they do not receive the expected returns or were unable to withdraw their investments, said the police.
The police did not provide the number of victims taken in by this ruse, nor the total amount lost. TODAY understands that it is currently not a significant number.
“Members of the public are advised not to react, reply,…
