Operation Frontier+ III resulted in the arrest of 3,018 people and the seizure of more than US$161 million in illicit funds
A Singapore-based company’s chief executive officer was deceived into authorising transfers worth US$36.3 million (S$46.5 million) after fraudsters impersonated the firm’s chairman in a sophisticated business email compromise scam, authorities revealed on Wednesday (May 20).
The incident emerged as part of Operation Frontier+ III — a sweeping multinational anti-scam crackdown conducted between Mar 10 and May 7 involving Singapore and nine foreign law enforcement agencies.
According to the Singapore Police Force (SPF), the operation led to the arrest of 3,018 individuals aged between 13 and 85, while another 7,553 people were investigated for links to more than 138,000 scam cases involving approximately US$752 million in losses.
Authorities also froze nearly 102,000 bank accounts and seized more than US$161 million in illicit funds.
Within Singapore, police arrested over 130 individuals and investigated more than 1,000 others connected to over 3,000 scam cases involving nearly S$70 million in losses. Investigators also froze 2,315 bank accounts and seized around S$35 million.
CEO deceived into multimillion-dollar transfer
Police said the scam unfolded on Apr 9 when the CEO received a WhatsApp call from a scammer posing as the chairman of the company’s headquarters. The fraudster instructed the executive to oversee an acquisition project.
Acting on the request, the CEO directed the company’s chief financial officer to arrange funding. Between Apr 13 and Apr 17, a total of US$36.3 million was transferred from the firm’s overseas and Singapore bank accounts into two local OCBC accounts.
Of the total amount, US$27.1 million originated from the company’s Luxembourg subsidiary, while US$9.7 million came from its Singapore operations.
The scam only came to light on Apr 17 after the CEO verified the acquisition with the actual chairman.
“Following the report, the Anti-Scam Centre (ASC) intervened swiftly, seizing US$9.7 million in the local accounts, while approximately US$ 26.5 million had already been wired to bank accounts in Hong Kong,” police said.
Singapore authorities subsequently contacted Hong Kong’s Anti-Deception Coordination Centre, leading to the seizure of more than US$11.1 million from Hong Kong bank accounts and related cryptocurrency wallets.
“Investigations subsequently led to the arrest of two Singaporeans who facilitated the opening of a corporate bank account to receive the illicit funds,” police said, adding that investigations remain ongoing.
Commodity trader loses US$6.6 million
In a separate business email compromise case, police received a report on Apr 30 involving a Singapore-based commodity trading company that had transferred US$6.6 million to a fraudulent bank account in Oman.
Investigators said employees at the company received an email appearing to come from a legitimate supplier. However, scammers had subtly altered the domain name by transposing two letters, rendering the fake address “virtually indistinguishable from the genuine one”, police said.
Believing the request to be authentic, staff proceeded with the transfer before discovering the deception the following day, after the genuine supplier clarified that no bank account changes had been made.
Following the complaint, Singapore police coordinated with the United Arab Emirates Ministry of Interior and Dubai Police to engage Omani authorities.
The stolen funds were eventually traced and fully recovered.
Cross-border collaboration key
SPF also highlighted two additional joint operations conducted with Malaysian authorities during the crackdown.
“Our ability to curb cross-border scams hinges on the depth of the relationships we build with the FRONTIER+ network,” said Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) director Peggy Pao.
“When agencies share real-time alerts, pool analytical resources and conduct synchronised raids, this accelerates the identification of illicit fund flows and the dismantling of scam operations.”
FRONTIER+ network expands
FRONTIER+ is a multinational anti-scam collaboration platform comprising representatives from anti-scam centres across 14 law enforcement agencies.
SPF said more than 3,200 officers from Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, Malaysia, Maldives, Thailand, Macau, Indonesia, Brunei and Canada participated in Operation FRONTIER+ III during the two-month enforcement drive.
The police added that the network aims to expand further by bringing in additional countries and regions to strengthen coordinated action against transnational crime.
Credits: Channel News Asia