SINGAPORE — Twelve people are being investigated following a police probe into recent reports of extortion letters containing manipulated obscene photos of the victims.

The seven men and five women, aged between 18 and 46, had purportedly provided bank accounts and SIM cards used to commit a series of extortion, police said in a news release on Wednesday (May 1).

They were "allegedly involved in either procuring bank accounts for criminal activities or facilitated or assisted in the unauthorised access of Singpass accounts, or purchased and relinquished local SIM cards which were obtained through illegal means", read the news release.

"All of which were alleged to have been facilitating the criminal activities of overseas scam syndicates."

Preliminary investigations revealed that the 12 people had purportedly received or were promised commissions.

During the two-week operation, at least S$115,000 in suspected criminal proceeds, some of which were allegedly linked to other scam cases, were recovered,  police said, adding that an array of electronic devices were also seized.

A 23-year-old woman will be charged in court on Thursday for facilitating unauthorised access to computer material under the Computer Misuse Act.

If convicted, she faces up to two years' jail, a fine, or both.

170 REPORTS RECEIVED

Several Members of Parliament (MPs) were among dozens of people who have received extortion letters with the manipulated photos.

Foreign Affairs Minister Vivian Balakrishnan, as well as MPs Tan Wu Meng and Edward Chia posted on Facebook on Apr 20 saying that they received such letters and had lodged police reports.

More than 170 reports on such extortion letters were received between March and April 2024, police said on Wednesday.

The letters contained pictures of the victims' faces superimposed onto obscene photographs of a man and a woman purportedly in an "intimate and compromising position".

The letters also warned of "threatening consequences" unless the victims contact the email address provided.

If the victims contacted the email address, they would be asked to transfer money to prevent "compromising photographs and videos" of themselves from being leaked and exposed on social media, the police had said. CNA