For more than a week, Mr Y lived in fear, crying alone in his bedroom, refusing to communicate with his family, as he believed he was under investigation for money laundering. He had lost $800,000 to a government official impersonation scam. I met Mr Y at a Meet-the-People Session.
Being an ex-civil servant and a law-abiding citizen all his life, he faithfully complied with the instructions from scammers, desperate to prove his innocence. Mr Y is one of more than 4,000 victims who lost monies through this scam type ever since the Singapore Police Force (SPF) started tracking scam numbers in 2016.
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