A 21-year-old woman suspected of having been involved in a China officials impersonation scam was arrested after police received a report on a kidnapping case that turned out to be staged.
The police said in a news release on Saturday Sep 24 that they received a report on Tuesday that another 21-year-old woman had been kidnapped.
Before the report was made, the victim's parents in China received a video of their daughter tied up with her hands and legs tied up, with a ransom demand from an unknown person communicating in Mandarin.
Following the report, police conducted searches and investigations to locate the victim, and she was found to be safe and sound on Thursday in a Yishun flat rented by the 21-year-old woman.
The victim received a call from a person pretending to be from the Health Ministry in Singapore, according to preliminary investigations. The victim's name was used to cheat people in China, according to a phone line registered in the victim's name.
When the victim denied this, the call was directed to another scammer pretending to be an officer from the 'China Police', who said that a bank account in her name was also found to be involved in money laundering activities in China.
The victim was deceived into transferring more than S $350,000 as bail money to the scammer to avoid being deported.
The victim, acting on the scammer's instructions, also recorded a video of herself being tied up to assist in purported investigations.
The victim was told by the scammer to stop communication and isolate herself in a'safe house' that the scammer had arranged, according to the police.