SINGAPORE, Nov 16 — Singapore police have issued public reminders to alert after scammers duped victims out of more than S$1 million (RM 3.18 million) through a bogus “Johor-Singapore Housing Subsidy” programme in the past two months.
At least 21 cases have been reported since September, new outlet CNA reported the Singapore Police Force (SPF) as saying last Friday.
The scheme was promoted online with posts claiming to offer subsidised housing under the so-called “JBSG Housing Subsidy Program” or “Free Homes Across the Causeway” on platforms such as Facebook and WhatsApp.
“These advertisements falsely claim a collaboration between the Singapore and Johor governments to provide subsidised housing and contain embedded links for applications,” the SPF was quoted as saying.
Some ads even showed forged documents with signatures allegedly from the prime ministers of Singapore and Malaysia.
Victims who clicked the links were directed to WhatsApp, where they were asked to provide personal information including their identification card numbers, addresses and email addresses.
They were then instructed to transfer money online for supposed “legal and stamp duties” or hand over cash to unknown individuals.
SPF said that the housing subsidy initiative does not exist and warned that sharing personal information could lead to further scams.
It advised the public not to share sensitive details or send money to anyone unknown, urging everyone to verify the authenticity of such schemes before taking any action.