Investors lost 16 million USD in Singapore (22,3 million SGD) for the first half of 2020, in part due to the Covid19 pandemic. For the same period last year the losses were with 45% less, or about 11,27 million USD.
According to the reports, the largest sum lost to a single scam is a whopping 1 million SGD or 730,000 USD.
Singaporean police also reported that the crime rate in the country has risen by 11% for the first half of the year, due to the sharp rise in various scam schemes.
Local authorities issued a statement:
“Criminals have been taking advantage of the COVID-19 situation to find new victims, by exploiting the public’s fear and sense of uncertainty. This is evident from the significant increase in online scam cases reported in the first half of 2020,”
When the pandemic started one of my first thoughts was how it was going to give scammers more opportunities to victimize people, and sadly I was right. 