(Singapore, 1st) — A 73-year-old Malaysian woman in Singapore was arrested on November 24th for allegedly receiving criminal proceeds in three cases of impersonating government officials scams.
According to Lianhe Zaobao, as of November 2025, at least 34 Malaysian citizens have been arrested for their involvement in 20 scam cases, acting for scam syndicates to receive criminal proceeds in Singapore.
The Singapore Police Force issued a statement on the 30th, saying that between October 8 and November 24 this year, police received multiple reports of scams involving impersonation of government officials.
In these cases, individuals claiming to be 'officials' from the Monetary Authority of Singapore proactively contacted victims, claiming that the victims’ bank accounts were involved in money laundering activities or that their personal information had been leaked.
The victims would then be instructed to hand over money and valuables to 'cooperate with the investigation.' Believing the scammers, victims complied and met unidentified individuals at different locations in Singapore, handing over cash and gold bars.
Victims were unaware they had been scammed until, after the designated date, they failed to receive any refunds or could no longer contact the so-called “officials”, at which point they realized they had been deceived.
The 73-year-old Malaysian woman suspected of being involved in this kind of government official impersonation scam was arrested by the police on November 24.
The statement pointed out that on that day, staff at a gold and silver trading store on New Bridge Road in Chinatown filed a report to the police, saying a suspicious-looking woman was loitering outside the shop. Officers from Central Police Division arrived at the scene to investigate and arrested the woman, seizing 200 Singapore dollars and gold bars worth about S$200,000 (approximately RM637,000) from her.
Preliminary investigations revealed that the woman was suspected of assisting the scam syndicate, responsible for collecting cash and gold bars from victims who fell for the government official impersonation scheme. Once she obtained the valuables, she would hand them over as instructed to unidentified members believed to be from the syndicate.
Police previously disclosed that in the first half of 2025, impersonation of government officials scams almost doubled, rising from 589 cases in the same period in 2024 to 1,762 cases, an increase of 199.2%. The total loss caused by such scams also increased by 88.3% year-on-year, from approximately S$67.2 million in the first half of 2024 to about S$126.5 million (approximately RM402 million).