credit-for-sex scams victimising many more SG men
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China credit-for-sex scams victimising many more Singapore men, say police
Hundreds of Singapore males have fallen victim to credit-for-sex scams in the past year, with the bulk of these cases perpetrated by syndicates from China, according to police.
In their annual crime press briefing on Friday, the Singapore Police Force reported that the number of credit-for-sex cases jumped to 1,137 in 2015 from just 66 cases in 2014.
The largest amount involved approximately $74,000.
According to director of commercial affairs department, David Chew, 76.2 per cent of the victims were male between the age of 20 and 39.
“We worked with the Chinese - I think, eight months joint investigation with the Chinese - to crackdown on the syndicate that’s operating in three provinces … specifically targeting us. They had call centers… with scripts, calling our men to offer sex. And they (the victims) happily gave them millions of dollars for a person that never turns up,” said Chew.
The investigations, which took place last year, were followed by simultaneous raids conducted by the Chinese police. A total of 43 syndicate members were detained, with several computers, telecommunication devices and modems seized.
View photosOverall, the police said that crime in Singapore increased by 4 per cent in 2015 to 33,608 cases from 32,315 cases the year before.
The rise was mainly due to an increase in commercial crimes amid spikes across three top online crimes: credit-for-sex, love scams and cheating involving e-commerce.
For cheating involving e-commerce, the number of cases increased to 2,173 last year from 1,665 cases the previous year. The largest amount involved was approximately $50,000. Online buyers made up the bulk of the victims, with 1,887 cases involving buyers and only 153 cases involving online sellers.
SPF said that the victims for e-commerce cases were mainly those aged between 20 and 49.
Women aged 30 to 60 make up the majority (79.6 per cent) of victims for online love scams. According to SPF, the number of cases increased by 93.4 per cent from 2014 to 2015, with the largest amount cheated at approximately $528,000.
For all the three online crimes, only “minimal” amounts have been recovered, said Chew.
“The money moves very fast… it’s very hard to get the money back,” he said.
Meanwhile, the director of the SPF public affairs department, AC Wilson Lim, said that the situation has improved for “physical” crimes in Singapore.
According to police statistics, violent or serious property crimes, robbery, snatch theft, and theft of motor vehicle component parts saw a great decrease in 2015.
The number of violent or serious property crimes fell by 44 per cent, robbery by 47 per cent and snatch theft by 49 per cent. The cases of theft of motor vehicle component parts decreased by 43 per cent, falling to a 20-year low in 2015.
Unlicensed money lending (UML) harassment in Singapore was at a 10-year low in 2015 after a 35.6 per cent decrease from 2014 to 2015.
