Singapore Falls for Deepfake Video, Loses $4,200 Scheme

In Singapore, a retired man of 75 years lost about $4200 to fraudsters after being duped by a fake video that involved a local official praising a cryptocurrency investment program

ContentsThe first scam is with a WhatsApp group and fake endorsementRenunciation and increasing mistrustIncreasing Crypto scam threat in SingaporeAwareness and cautionThe victim, described as Victor, thought that the endorsement was valid and, in a bid to make the most out of his retirement money, became a victim of the fraud.

The first scam is with a WhatsApp group and fake endorsement

In January, Victor was invited to a WhatsApp group, where they were discussing a highly profitable crypto investment opportunity

It included a video of a deepfake of a local minister supporting the investment that was provided in the group

Relying on the video having the seemingly great integrity, Victor decided to follow the given link and access a scheme-registration page.

Victor received a phone call claiming to be a Coinbase representative, and after filling out the registration form and paying a fee of $250 through bank transfer, he was contacted again with the same phone number, and when Victor commented that he insisted on obtaining a notification as payment was made, the same person called him once more, asking about the transfer to his bank account.

Once the registration form was filled out and $250 have been sent over in the form of a bank transfer, Victor was once again contacted over the phone by a faker who claimed to be a representative of the scammer who was an English speaker who was talking about the alleged advantages of using the exchange

One of the colleagues later approached Victor to invest in his funds by asking him to log into his Central Provident Fund (CPF) and take money out of his CPF Ordinary account.

Renunciation and increasing mistrust

Victor did as he was told, even accepting the offer of increasing his CPF daily withdrawal limit; this would take 12 hours to cool down

After the limit was removed, Victor moved the money in his CPF to his bank account and deposited $4.4 000, as instructed by the scammer

Nevertheless, one week later, he got an SMS alert informing him that he had been withdrawn an amount of $3,999 that he had not authorized.

The fraudster made another call and sent Victor more links, and victor became suspicious. When the caller suddenly terminated the dialogue after inquiring about the investment, Victor complained about the incident to his bank and closed his account

He even got in touch with the police since he knew that he had just escaped additional loss of money.

Increasing Crypto scam threat in Singapore

Governments have been concerned about the rising cases of crypto fraud across the world. Police Superintendent Rosie Ann McIntyre records that the number of losses due to investment scams increased significantly

McIntyre also emphasized the importance of deepfake videos and counterfeit endorsements in trapping victims, and scammers could take months to gain trust before making an enormous step.

The fact that digital currencies are anonymous makes it difficult to trace illegal operations and reclaim stolen money. McIntyre highlighted a problem of tracing such transactions, thus making it difficult to bring criminals to book.

Awareness and caution

Victor is now calling upon people to be wary about internet investment deals, particularly ones that appear to be too good to be true

He made a loss of 4249 but is happy that he escaped greater losses because of his suspicions. He recommends that people should be very careful when screening any online opportunity, and not to follow any suspicious links, no matter how convincing they may be.