Don’t talk to strangers

05:55 AM Jun 18, 2009

YOUR phone rings and a stranger informs you that your relative has murdered someone and needs to flee the country. Or you could be told that your family and company are being watched.

In both scenarios, the caller would eventually demand money and will threaten to use violence to disrupt your business activities or cause harm to family members if payments are not made.

The police have detected this new variation of phone scams in which culprits make extortion calls to business offices demanding money. Like the earlier versions of phone scams, these are designed to trick victims into parting with their money.

The calls are believed to be made from overseas, and the culprit is also known to converse in Mandarin with a China or Taiwan accent, the police said in a statement yesterday.

The culprit may also threaten to kidnap female victims and take nude photos of them if his demands are not met. He may also claim that he has links with secret societies and needs money to help his men flee Singapore after committing serious crimes.

He may also say he has firearms and explosives.

None of the culprits have so far been successful, and none of the threats made have been carried out, according to the police. But they advise members of the public to be aware of, and to be vigilant against such scams.

You should never reveal any personal details, including those of your business or family to any caller, or transfer money to unknown persons.

Such calls should be reported as soon as possible by calling the police hotline at 1800 255 0000 or 999 if urgent police assistance is required.

The police also advise vigilance against the other variations of phone scams such as the kidnap, lottery and impersonation scams.

More details of what these entail can be found at the Singapore Police Force website at www.spf.gov.sg or the Commercial Affairs Department website at www.cad.gov.sg.

From TODAY, News – Thursday, 18-Jun-2009; see the source article here.