The Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) of Singapore has warned citizens to remain alert of a phone scam in which callers impersonating ICA officers ask for people's personal information.
Detailing the modus operandi of such callers, ICA said, “The unknown caller, who may or may not have used ICA's numbers to call, would claim to be an ICA officer and ask recipients to provide their personal information such as bank account or passport numbers.In some cases, they were also asked to transfer money in relation to cases or investigations which they were allegedly involved in.”
Issuing a clarification, ICA said, “The ICA would like to clarify that these calls were not made by our officers. ICA does not call members of the public to transfer money.”
ICA while issuing advisory to public reminded that they should ignore such calls and the caller's instructions and do not transfer any money to the caller.
ICA takes a serious view of such scam calls as it undermines public trust in ICA.
People may call the police hotline at 1800-255 0000 or submit information online if they have related information, and dial ‘999’ only if urgent police assistance is required.
Members of the public can seek scam-related advice by calling the anti-scam helpline at 1800-722-6688 or go to www.scamalert.sg.