SINGAPORE – A company that was tricked into transferring more than US$45,000 (S$57,000) to a bogus supplier got its money back in an international collaboration involving Singapore police, United Arab Emirates authorities and the Interpol.
The Singapore-based consultancy firm lodged a report on Sept 18, saying it had fallen prey to a case of business e-mail compromise scam, police said in a news release on Oct 3.
Preliminary investigations showed that one of the firm’s employees received an e-mail from someone posing as its supplier on Sept 12, notifying the company to transfer the payment of goods purchased to a new bank account based in the UAE.
“Unbeknownst to the staff, the ‘.com’ in the supplier’s original e-mail was replaced with ‘.store’,” police said.
The employee then initiated a transfer of US$45,532 to the purported supplier on Sept 18, and the funds were directed to the fraudulent bank account maintained in the UAE.
The fraud was discovered on the same day, after the real supplier told the staff member that it has not changed its bank account.
Following investigations, the police’s Anti-Scam Command managed to recover the lost money with help from UAE authorities and the Interpol through the Interpol’s rapid response system called Global Rapid Intervention of Payments.
“This successful recovery underscores the critical importance of international cooperation in combating transnational scam cases, where perpetrators operate in a borderless environment,” said the police.