SINGAPORE - The police have arrested 296 people for suspected involvement in more than 1,000 scams, where victims lost over $6.4 million. The suspects, aged between 16 and 80, were involved as scammers or money mules, said the police on Friday (Nov 5) night. The scams comprise mainly Internet love, e-commerce, government-official impersonation, job and loan types. The 194 men and 102 women were arrested after officers conducted a two-week operation between Oct 22 and Nov 5. The suspects are being investigated for cheating, money laundering or providing payment services without a licence. Those found guilty of cheating can be jailed up to 10 years and fined. Those found guilty of money laundering can be jailed up to 10 years, fined up to $500,000, or both. Those found guilty of carrying on an unlicensed business of providing payment service can be fined up to $125,000, jailed up to three years, or both. The police said: "To avoid being an accomplice to crimes, members of the public should always reject requests by others to use your bank account or mobile lines as you will be held accountable if these are linked to crimes." For more information, members of the public can visit www.scamalert.sg or call the Anti-Scam Hotline on 1800-722-6688. More on this topic Related Story Cash-on-delivery scams: She orders perfume online, but gets water bottle instead Related Story S'pore and Malaysia police cripple two job scam syndicates that cheated over 390 of $5m
PRAGUE (AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE) - Champions France stumbled on the first hurdle as they lost to Canada in their opening tie of the maiden Billie Jean King Cup final tournament in Prague on Monday (Nov 1). The 2019 Fed Cup champions and the top seeds of its rebranded version have to beat Russia on Wednesday to keep their hopes of making the play-offs alive. Fiona Ferro lost the opening rubber to 353rd-ranked Canadian Francoise Abanda 6-4, 4-6, 4-6. "I started the match pretty well and I had many opportunities especially in the second set," Ferro said. "I was leading 2-0 in the second set and I couldn't take advantage of it so of course it's frustrating." Alize Cornet then levelled the score by edging Rebecca Marino 6-4, 7-6 (7-5). "For sure playing for my country makes it very special and you dig even deeper to try to play your best tennis," said Cornet. "It was not my best tennis today, but that's the best I could do today with all my heart and it was a pretty good game overall." But Cornet failed to convince as she teamed up with Clara Burel for the decisive doubles rubber and lost 6-3, 7-6 (8-6) to Gabriela Dabrowski and Marino. Canada were a late addition to the tournament, replacing Hungary after Budapest passed on the hosting rights to Prague. "To beat the No. 1 is obviously incredible and we should be really proud of ourselves," Marino beamed after the game. "As a team we came together and fought with a lot of heart." In the other afternoon tie at the rebranded Fed Cup tournament, Belgium won both singles to beat Belarus 2-1 in Group B. World No. 70 Greet Minnen first eased past 263rd-ranked Iryna Shymanovich of Belarus 6-2, 6-2 in the opening rubber. "I'm really happy, it was my first time playing for Belgium and I'm really happy that I could give our country the first win of the day," said Minnen. Elise Mertens added a second point when she overpowered Aliaksandra Sasnovich 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 in more than two hours. Sasnovich and Vera Lapko then won a consolation point for Belarus as they beat Mertens and Kirsten Flipkens 6-4, 6-3. "We started really strong, Greet was doing very well and that made it easier for me," said Mertens. "Today we're happy that we won both singles so we eventually took the win."
SINGAPORE - Scam victims lost $168 million to conmen in the top 10 scam categories in the first six months of this year, a sharp spike from $63.5 million in the same period last year. This comes on the back of a 16 per cent rise in the number of reported scam cases and a 11.2 per cent hike in overall crime, according to mid-year statistics released by the police on Monday (Aug 30). A total of 19,444 cases were reported between January and June this year, up from 17,492 in the same period last year. Scam cases climbed from 7,247 to 8,403. "Scammers are constantly evolving their tactics and have been taking advantage of the Covid-19 situation to prey on victims' heightened vulnerability and sense of uncertainty," said the police. In particular, loan scams had the highest number of reported cases among scam types, with $10.6 million cheated, compared with $5.6 million last year. The victims were mostly duped into providing personal information to supposed licensed moneylenders or banks. The scammers would ask them to pay a small percentage of the loan amount as administrative fees and become uncontactable after payment is made. E-commerce scams had the second highest number of reported cases, and the total amount lost by victims decreased from $5.4 million to $2.4 million. The police said the common items involved were electronic and gaming-related items. Job and investment scams have also surged significantly. Victims of job scams lost $6.5 million, a vast leap from $60,000 last year. Most of these cases involve victims being duped via advertisements on social media platforms - such as TikTok - or unsolicited WhatsApp messages from unknown numbers, which offered a part-time job with a daily salary of between $300 and $500. More on this topic Related Story More than 360 scams exposed by police; 81 people probed Related Story Record number of scams in 2020 pushed overall crime rate in S'pore to highest in more than 10 years The victims were told that they had to help e-commerce merchants improve their sales by buying items in advance, and would get refunds and commission fees later. This process of buying and refunding would be repeated several times, starting with low-cost items before moving to pricier ones. The scammers would pay the victims initially, but later claim to have encountered issues with the refunds before becoming uncontactable. "In some cases, victims were also instructed to complete a certain number of transactions within a given time frame in order to receive the payouts," said the police. Investment scam victims lost $66.2 million - more than triple the $21.6 million in the same period last year. In most cases, the scammers would claim to be financial professionals and entice victims to invest via websites or apps. The victims would be asked to transfer money to unknown bank accounts and pay administrative expenses, security fees or taxes in order to reap profits. In many instances, they would earn a profit from the investment at the initial stage. The scammers would become uncontactable after larger amounts of money were transferred, or when the victims realised they were unable to withdraw their money. Common platforms used by the scammers in these cases to communicate with their victims include dating app Tinder, said the police. Scammers tend to prey on the current public sentiment and context, said police principal psychologist Carolyn Misir. She noted that e-commerce and face mask-related scams were prevalent when the Covid-19 crisis started. "But as time went by, (people) got displaced (from their jobs) or businesses failed - then you (start to) see more loan, investment and job scams," she said. Since its inception in June 2019, the police's Anti-Scam Centre (ASC) has recovered $127 million - about 33.8 per cent of the total amount lost by victims. "Before the set-up of our ASC, the recovery rate was between 3 and 8 per cent, based on our own internal research," said Deputy Assistant Commissioner of Police (DAC) Aileen Yap. The ASC has worked with banks to freeze more than 17,000 bank accounts, and reported more than 21,000 WhatsApp accounts believed to be related to scams. DAC Yap said the ASC launched another initiative in July, which involves using automation to send SMS messages to alert potential scam victims determined through information gathering. More on this topic Related Story $9.3 million lost in 534 cases of scams in Singapore Related Story Interactive: How a love scammer’s 3-month ruse to swindle $165k got exposed Meanwhile, victims of cyber extortion lost more than $410,000, as cases rose to 141 from 81. "The most common social media platforms where these cases took place were Facebook, followed by Grindr and Instagram," said the police. In some cases, the victims would be befriended online and then coaxed into performing compromising or indecent acts in front of a camera. The video footage or images were used to extort money or online credits. Outrage of modesty cases went up to 786 from 567, while cases of voyeurism increased to 242 from 146. Cases of robbery, housebreaking and snatch theft dropped, with a 40.5 per cent decrease to 75 from 126. This is the lowest for mid-year figures in the past 10 years, said the police.
PARIS (REUTERS) - Claycourt king Rafael Nadal overcame a wobbly start to subdue Italian teenager Jannik Sinner 7-5, 6-3, 6-0, on Monday (June 7) and book a place in the French Open quarter-finals. The Spanish defending champion, looking to claim a record-extending 14th Roland Garros singles title and become the only man to win 21 Grand Slam singles crowns, has won 35 consecutive sets in Paris. World number 19 Sinner, who at 19 years old has been labelled as the next big thing in tennis, hit a brick wall on court Philippe Chatrier after leading 5-3 in the opening set. Third seed Nadal will face Diego Schwartzman for a place in the semi-finals after beating the Argentine in the last four in the previous edition of the tournament. "I played against a very good player who has a great future and I'm very happy with the win," Nadal said. "I started playing well the first couple of games and then I played too defensive for a few games and gave him the chance to step into the court and play his shots. After that the match changed a lot." Facing the ultimate challenge on clay, Sinner struggled to get into the groove before cancelling out an early break as Nadal experienced problems with his first serve. Sinner, who lost to the claycourt master in the quarter-finals here last year, found himself up a break after two Nadal double faults and a few uncharacteristic errors. Serving for the set, however, Sinner lost the game to love and Nadal levelled at 5-5 on his opponent's 25th unforced error before breaking to love again to seal the opening set. After losing eight games in a row, Sinner stopped the rot with a break, clinching it after rushing to the net to retrieve a drop shot and delivering a stunning crosscourt passing shot. Nadal quickly recovered to break again, however, and he served out to take a two-set lead before securing his 104th match win at Roland Garros. The Spaniard has not lost at the Paris Grand Slam tournament since 2015 when he was knocked out in the last eight by Novak Djokovic, his potential semi-final opponent.
SINGAPORE (THE NEW PAPER) - On a whim, two teenagers decided to look for the remnants of a World War II Japanese shrine and ended up lost for several hours in the forest at MacRitchie Reservoir. Broadrick Secondary School student Richard Goh, 14, found out about the Syonan Jinja shrine while searching the Internet for interesting places to explore last month. When he told his classmate Soo Xiang Lin, also 14, they decided to take a bus to MacRitchie Reservoir to look for it, arriving at the Lornie Road entrance at 3pm on Oct 18. The boys, who did not inform their parents of their plan, had no food or water because they assumed there would be vending machines there. Clad in T-shirts, shorts and track shoes, they took the Terentang Trail suggested by Apple Maps until they reached an opening, which they used to enter the forest. It was 5pm by then. They met a man who was also looking for the shrine, but he soon gave up his search. The boys pressed on and realised they were lost at 6.45pm when their attempt to follow pieces of orange plastic tied to surrounding trees led them deeper into the forest. Richard told The New Paper last week: "There was that sense of hopelessness when I realised we were lost." But Xiang Lin was hopeful they would be rescued. Hungry and thirsty, they called the police for help at 7.15pm. The call handler told them to download location finder app what3words to pinpoint their exact location. They were also told to stay put and remain calm if they see any animals. Richard said: "I was scared of wild boars and other animals, and I did not want to get eaten." Xiang Lin said: "I was more scared of getting scolded by my mother." The boys had been looking for the remnants of a World War II Japanese shrine and ended up lost for several hours in the forest at MacRitchie Reservoir. PHOTO: COURTESY OF RICHARD GOH When they texted their parents about their plight, it was 8pm and so dark they could not see their hands. About two hours later, the boys heard people shouting and shouted back in response. Six soldiers then appeared. After checking them for injuries and asking about their ordeal, the soldiers took the boys to a boat where they were given water to drink. After the boat took them to the main entrance, paramedics treated the minor cuts on their legs. They later found out the soldiers were part of a team of about 50 personnel that included the police and SCDF paramedics as well as an unknown number of drones. The boys were thankful that so many people were activated to find them. Broadrick Secondary School students Soo Xiang Lin and Richard Goh, who were lost in MacRitchie Reservoir for several hours. NP PHOTO: GIN TAY Richard's parents and Xiang Lin's mother were waiting for them at the entrance, and it was almost 11pm when they got home. Xiang Lin's mother, who wanted to be known only as Madam Lin, 42, a risk management consultant, said: "I was worried about the bad things that would happen based on my imagination. I am happy and thankful to the Singapore Police Force for finding my son." The police confirmed receiving a call for assistance from two boys at 7.16pm on Oct 18. Dr Adrian Loo, group director of conservation at National Parks Board, said: "We advise visitors going on a nature discovery walk to don comfortable walking shoes and take along a water bottle. "For their own safety, visitors to our nature reserves are reminded to stay on designated trails." He added that there are signs and railings to remind visitors not to stray off designated trails. Anyone caught doing so can be fined up to $2,000. More on this topic Related Story Check out these 7 nature spots that are far from crowds Related Story Heritage trails in Singapore worth checking out Hiking expert Hazleen Panayiotou said: "Don't panic if you are lost, stop walking farther. Calm down, think, retrace your steps in your mind and plan your route back before walking - recall landmarks, follow the GPS or compass, get help by whistling or call out for help." Noting his fear of getting into trouble with his mother, Xiang Lin said: "I will inform my parents before going on such adventures in future."
MADRID • Barcelona and Real Madrid will go into Saturday's Clasico at the Nou Camp knowing improvements are mandatory. Barcelona fell to their first La Liga defeat under Ronald Koeman as they lost 1-0 at Getafe on Saturday, hours after league champions Real Madrid slipped to a shock 1-0 home defeat by promoted Cadiz. It was the first time the two giants of Spanish football had both lost league matches on the same day without scoring since May 6, 2000. Getafe forward Jaime Mata sent goalkeeper Neto the wrong way from the penalty spot in the 56th minute after midfielder Frenkie de Jong had been penalised for treading on Djene Dakonam's foot. The result left Barca ninth with seven points after four games while Madrid remain top on 10 points having played five matches. "We have not entered the game in the second half," Koeman, whose side play Ferencvaros in the Champions League tomorrow, told Marca. "We lost the ball too much and conceded dangerous attacking situations. I don't know if it was a deserved penalty but I felt the penalty was sought out and we suffered. "We created very few chances, the best of them in the first half. It has been a very disputed game and we had little end product." Koeman made a number of changes to the Barca side who had drawn 0-0 at home to Sevilla in their last game, handing first starts of the term to new arrival Sergino Dest, Pedri and Ousmane Dembele. Koeman also played Antoine Griezmann in his preferred central role after his complaints about playing out of position. Yet the striker missed a glorious chance early in the game, blasting over the bar to remain without a goal after four league starts this season. He has just two goals from his last 28 shots. Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane will also seek to get more out of his players after admitting his team could have been two or three goals down before half-time. Anthony Lozano gave Cadiz the lead early in the game after the visitors had missed four chances in a chaotic start from the hosts, while he also wasted a clear opportunity to double his side's lead. 2000 The last time both Real Madrid and Barcelona lost in La Liga on the same day without scoring. "They played with more pace than us, more enthusiasm. We can't make any excuses, we played a bad game. We have to congratulate Cadiz. We're not happy at all," Zidane said. Madrid had not lost in the league since a 2-1 defeat by Real Betis back in March, just before last season's competition was halted due to the coronavirus pandemic and their last home defeat came in May 2019, a 2-0 loss to Betis. Real goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, however, insisted "a defeat is always a good thing because it gives you a wake-up call". "We'll have to put in a good performance against Shakhtar (Donetsk in the Champions League), win the match and head to the Nou Camp in confident mood," he added. REUTERS