Scam victims lost $385.6m in first half of 2024; cases up 16.3% to record 26,587

The scam situation here has worsened, with the number of cases increasing by 16.3 per cent, and victims losing a record high of over $385.6 million in the first six months of 2024.

- David Sun

If the trend continues, scam losses could exceed $770 million by the end of 2024.

The annual record stands at $660.7 million lost in 2022.

According to the police's midyear scam and cyber-crime statistics released on Aug 22, the number of cases in the first half of 2024 increased by 16.3 per cent to 26,587, a new record, from 22,853 during the same period in 2023.

Victims in 2024 lost more than $385.6 million, a 24.6 per cent increase compared with the $309.4 million lost in the first half of 2023.

In 86 per cent of the cases, the scammers did not gain control of the victims' accounts but had manipulated them into transferring money to the criminals.

At a media briefing, Minister of State for Home Affairs Sun Xueling said the figures are worrying.

She said: "There are a large number of scam cases which are attributed to self-effected transfers from victims, and this is concerning. Because this shows many of the victims were actually socially manipulated into transferring their monies into scam accounts." Ms Sun said investment and government official impersonation scams were of particular concern.

While the 3,330 cases of investment scams made up only 12.5 per cent of the total number of scam cases in the first half of 2024, victims lost $133.4 million, the highest amount lost of all scams.

This averaged out to about $40,000 lost by victims in each investment scam case.

The average amount a victim of a government official impersonation scam lost was almost three times higher.

In 580 cases of such scams in the first half of 2024, the victims lost $67.5 million. This averaged out to more than $116,500 lost per case.

The sharp decline in the number of fake friend call scams did offer some good news. It decreased by 38.2 per cent to 2,368 cases from 3,832 in 2023. The amount lost also fell from $12.9 million in the first half of 2023 to about $8.1 million for the same period in 2024.