Advisory on Unsolicited Phone Calls Impersonating MinLaw Officers

28 JUL 2020

28 Jul 2020 Posted in Announcements

  1. The Ministry of Law (“MinLaw”) has been alerted to cases where members of the public have received unsolicited phone calls from scammers impersonating MinLaw officers.
  1. The scammers would ask their victims to redeem documents/parcels, and these scammers may even provide a fake staff ID number and a non-toll free line to support their claims. In some cases, the scam calls may also involve playing an automated voice message that says “the Ministry of Law is unable to locate you” in English and Mandarin, which would then prompt the victims to press a number to speak to a customer service officer.
  1. To avoid falling prey to such scams, members of the public who receive such calls are advised to adopt the following measures:
  1. Be vigilant. Case officers at MinLaw do not have a staff ID number, and automated messages are not part of our outgoing call system.
  2. Authenticate our officers’ identity by asking case-related information, such as your case reference number. As some of our officers are telecommuting during this period, there will be instances where they call from a private or non-official number. You may contact the MinLaw hotline at 1800-225-5529 (Mon to Fri, 8.30am to 5pm) to verify their identity.
  3. Take note of the incoming call number. If it shows a prefix, e.g. “+65 12345678”, it is an incoming international call. Stay vigilant when receiving any unexpected international calls, and reject those which spoof local numbers. MinLaw does not place calls from overseas.
  4. Do not make any payments to the caller, via either remittance services, bank transfers or any other means. MinLaw will not ask you to make a payment through a telephone call, especially to a third party’s bank account.
  5. Do not provide the caller with your personal information like your name, NRIC number, passport details, bank account or credit card details, and even the SMS One-Time Password (OTP).
  1. If you have any information relating to such incidents, please report to the police at 1800-255-0000, or submit it online at https://www.police.gov.sg/iwitness/.
  1. For scam-related advice, please call the National Crime Prevention Council’s anti-scam helpline at 1800 722 6688 or visit https://www.scamalert.sg.

MINISTRY OF LAW
28 Jul 2020