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At least 13 victims, S$38,000 lost over job scam impersonating travel company

SINGAPORE — At least 13 victims have fallen prey to a "new variant" of a job scam involving a travel company, with their total losses exceeding S$38,000 since Jan this year, the police said on Monday (March 7).

A screenshot of a fake job website where victims were instructed to sign up for accounts and told to top-up their accounts with money to proceed with the job.

A screenshot of a fake job website where victims were instructed to sign up for accounts and told to top-up their accounts with money to proceed with the job.

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SINGAPORE — At least 13 victims have fallen prey to a "new variant" of a job scam involving a travel company, with their total losses exceeding S$38,000 since January this year, the police said on Monday (March 7).

Urging the public to take precautionary measures, the police said these victims were invited to participate in jobs that allowed them to earn high commissions by reviewing travel attractions and packages.

Scammers claiming to be job recruiters approached the victims via online messaging applications, such as WhatsApp and Telegram. They also impersonated Anywhr, a Singapore-headquartered travel company, to make their ruse more believable, the police said.

Anywhr, a service which plans trips for its customers, is licensed and supported by the Singapore Tourism Board, the company claimed on its website.

Victims who expressed interest in the jobs would then be instructed to sign up for accounts on spoofed websites, and told to top up their accounts with money in order to review the attractions and earn commissions.

Scammers would then provide victims with bank accounts belonging to unknown individuals for payment to be made, the police said.

To convince the victims that their work was legitimate and to continue topping up their accounts, victims would initially be able to withdraw the commissions. They would only realise later that they had been duped when they were unable to withdraw money from their accounts.

On Monday, the police urged the public not to accept job offers that offer lucrative returns for minimal effort, to verify the authenticity of the job offer with the company offering the job, and not to send money to people they do not know or have not met in person.

Anyone with information about such crimes may contact the police at 1800-255-0000 or at police.gov.sg/iwitness. 

Members of the public can visit www.scamalert.sg or call the Anti-Scam Hotline at 1800-722-6688 for more information on scams.

Related topics

job scam travel anywhr victims

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