Overview

• Police logged 19,665 scam cases and S$456.4 million in losses in the first half, down 26% and 12.6% year on year respectively, with a median loss of about S$1,500 and roughly 1,000 victims losing at least S$100,000.
• Phishing was the most common scam with 3,779 cases as losses surged to S$30.4 million, while government-official impersonation nearly tripled to 1,762 cases with S$126.5 million lost and victims pressured to hand cash, gold or valuables to mules.
• Investment scams caused the largest losses at about S$145.4 million despite fewer cases, often steering victims to set up cryptocurrency wallets or share credentials, with crypto accounting for S$81.6 million, or 17.9%, of total losses.
• Malware-enabled scams jumped 266.7% to 363 cases as scammers misused Android Debug Bridge for remote access, though related losses fell sharply to S$5.5 million, and the police urged users not to enable ADB.
• A new insurance services scam recorded 791 cases and roughly S$21.3 million lost, and authorities reported two bank restriction orders under new law, investigations into over 3,500 suspected mules with 500+ charged, and large-scale disruptions of mobile and WhatsApp lines plus work on a FIDO-compliant hardware token for high-value banking approvals.