Once again, a wave of impersonation scams has cost Singapore victims a bundle of money, and the Singapore Police Force has issued a joint alert with the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). Since January 2025 until the middle of March 2025, at least SGD 1.7 million has been stolen by fraudsters who impersonated MAS officials and representatives of NTUC Union, Income Insurance, and Unionpay.
A March 14 media release said: “The Singapore Police Force and Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) would like to alert members of the public to scams involving impersonation of MAS officials, representatives from NTUC Union, Income Insurance, and Unionpay staff. Since January 2025, at least 6 cases have been reported to the Police, with total losses amounting to at least SGD 1.7million.”
How this scam variant works
The Singapore Police Force release explained the steps:
● In this scam variant, victims would receive unsolicited calls from local mobile lines i.e. starting with “+65” or “8”, allegedly from NTUC Union, Income Insurance, or Unionpay. Victims would be informed that there are outstanding premiums associated with a new or expiring life insurance policy under their name.
● Thereafter, victims would be redirected to a second scammer purporting to be an Income Insurance or Unionpay staff who would request personal information from the victims, such as bank account details and personal credentials, under the pretext of verifying their policy details.
● Victims would then be informed that, unless they cancel the insurance policy, the outstanding fees would automatically be deducted from their bank accounts. To cancel the insurance policy, victims would first have to verify their bank accounts by performing bank transfers to a specified bank account. In some cases, victims would be guided in performing these transfers through WhatsApp’s screen-sharing function.
● Throughout the process, victims were given the assurance that their monies would be refunded upon successful cancellation of their insurance policies.
● In some cases, victims would be redirected to another scammer impersonating an MAS officer. The scammer would inform victims that their bank accounts had been implicated in money-laundering activities or that their personal information had been compromised and they would have to transfer monies to a specified bank account to assist in investigations. Victims would comply and only realise that they had been scammed when the scammers became uncontactable, or when they did not receive the promised refunds.
Alerting the public, the press release said: “NTUC Union, Income Insurance and Unionpay will never request personal information or payments to a personal bank account through unsolicited phone calls, emails, WhatsApp messages, or SMS. Any such requests should be treated as fraudulent.”
“Payment for insurance policies is only done via Income Insurance’s secure payment portals such as its official customer portal, ME@INCOME, Interactive Voice Recognition (IVR) phone system, AXS, and internet banking bill payment,” it added.
The police urged members of the public to report suspicious activity immediately to Income Insurance by calling the company’s hotline at 6788 1777 or visit its branches. Policyholders may also contact their advisers for assistance.
More security tips are available at income.com.sg/security-advisory. Users of Unionpay can report suspicious activity via: UnionPay’s Help Center > Overseas Service Hotline > Asia > Singapore helpline.
“MAS would like to alert members of the public that MAS will not, at any time, ask you to transfer money or disclose personal or banking credentials. MAS also does not maintain any records of individuals’ financial or banking accounts, nor does it hold funds of individuals,” said the release.
