SINGAPORE - A scam operation is being investigated by the police after it used deceptive images of Singaporean leaders including Prime Minister Lawrence Wong and fictitious reports allegedly by mainstream news outlets to deceive Singapore residents into fraudulent investments.
The police said on Nov 4 that reports have been lodged against the Immediate Era investment platform and that investigations are ongoing.
Members of the public were reminded to be cautious when responding to investment-related advertisements.
The fraudulent activities of Immediate Era were flagged in October by cybersecurity firm Group-IB, which found that the platform was engaging in large-scale scam activity linked to a forex investment platform in Mauritius.
According to an expose published by Group-IB, the platform used verified advertiser accounts appearing only to internet users on Singapore IP addresses.
These ads misappropriated images of Singapore leaders like PM Wong and Coordinating Minister for National Security K. Shanmugam to create an illusory veil of compliance while promoting lucrative investment returns.
Checks on multiple platforms showed the Immediate Era platform also drew fake ties with Singapore personalities like Razer founder Tan Min-Liang or former DBS chief executive officer Piyush Gupta.
The platform could be reached through malicious Google Ads that appeared across platforms including Gmail, Maps and YouTube, and were registered to at least 28 verified advertiser accounts whose owners were based in Bulgaria, Romania, Latvia, Argentina and Kazakhstan.
A user who clicked on an ad promoting the scam would be directed to a page designed to evade Google's detection algorithms before being taken to fictitious news pages made to look like legitimate ones with "reports" featuring the reputable Singapore personalities and the Immediate Era platform.
Contact information would be solicited, with a manufactured sense of urgency and false messaging claiming the rewards were for Singapore nationals only. Would-be victims would then be contacted and pressured to deposit minimum funds of US$250 into the platform.
According to Group-IB, more than 3,800 Singapore-based users have clicked on the ads, redirecting them to malicious sites hawking the fraudulent investment platform in the month leading to Oct 21.
Singapore's police force said Singapore internet users can check the legitimacy of suspicious messages, phone numbers and website links via the ScamShield app or the ScamShield website at scamshield.gov.sg
Singapore residents should also verify the authenticity of the investment company by asking as many questions as needed to understand and assess possible investment opportunities.
The credentials of a company and its representatives can also be checked using available resources, including the Financial Institutions Directory, Register of Representatives, and Investor Alert List on the MAS' website mas.gov.sg
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