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SINGAPORE - Last July, Singaporean Barry Lim (not his real name) got a phone call asking him to take part in a lucky draw for free.
The catch - the draw would be conducted in Hong Kong.
Not thinking too much about it, he agreed. About a week later, he received another phone call telling him that he had won the top prize of a car, worth HK$1 million ($160,000).
But since he was not a Hong Kong resident, he could not collect the vehicle.
Instead, the caller offered to help him reinvest the money into horse racing and Mr Lim agreed.
Then, the caller called him a week later and said Mr Lim had won HK$22 million.
Over the next month, Mr Lim sent $784,000 in more than 20 money transfers to an overseas bank account for what his caller claimed to be taxes and lawyers' fees.
When his money didn't appear after some time, Mr Lim went to the cops.
That was when he got a rude shock: He had been a victim of a common phone scam.
According to yearly statistics released on Wednesday, Mr Lim's is just one of 181 cases of "lucky draw scams" detected last year.
Despite a marginal drop in cases, the total amount lost to lucky draw phone scams was $7.4 million, $1 million more than 2011.
This is the highest amount ever lost to any one type of phone scam.
In at least three cases, including Mr Lim's, victims transferred amounts of more than $700,000 over a one-month period.
Perpetrators used increasingly elaborate schemes, including grooming the victim over a period of time. Victims ranged from retirees to working professionals.
A police spokesman said there have been occasions where victims became suspicious, but the con artists got an accomplice to call up a "bank officer".
Added the spokesman: "Sometimes, even though they (the victims) know it doesn't seem right, they want it to be true because they've already put in so much money, thus the reluctance to come forward."
Most of these swindlers are Chinese-speaking and come from around the region, the police said.
It is believed that all these cases originated outside Singapore.
Ransom
Another popular hustle is the "kidnap scam", where callers pretend to be kidnappers asking for ransom.
The number of cases dropped by nearly half last year, but most of the 23 victims were the elderly and vulnerable.
Last year, 153 people were also molested on buses and trains, a 34 per cent increase from 2011.
The police said that this was because public transport is more crowded, which presented more opportunities for such crimes.
There was also a small increase in the number of thefts and related crimes, with 18,421 cases last year.
Police put the cause to a spike in bicycle thefts, which they said was a cause for concern.
In the first six months of last year, there were 697 cases involving stolen bicycles, 205 more than in the same period in 2011.
Other categories of crime, including housebreaking and commercial crimes, have seen slight improvements, with numbers decreasing from previous years.
This is especially for housebreaking and related crimes, which hit a 20-year low with 596 cases last year.
The police said that at least 300 cases were committed by 25 serial offenders arrested last year.
The catch - the draw would be conducted in Hong Kong.
Not thinking too much about it, he agreed. About a week later, he received another phone call telling him that he had won the top prize of a car, worth HK$1 million ($160,000).
But since he was not a Hong Kong resident, he could not collect the vehicle.
Instead, the caller offered to help him reinvest the money into horse racing and Mr Lim agreed.
Then, the caller called him a week later and said Mr Lim had won HK$22 million.
Over the next month, Mr Lim sent $784,000 in more than 20 money transfers to an overseas bank account for what his caller claimed to be taxes and lawyers' fees.
When his money didn't appear after some time, Mr Lim went to the cops.
That was when he got a rude shock: He had been a victim of a common phone scam.
According to yearly statistics released on Wednesday, Mr Lim's is just one of 181 cases of "lucky draw scams" detected last year.
Despite a marginal drop in cases, the total amount lost to lucky draw phone scams was $7.4 million, $1 million more than 2011.
This is the highest amount ever lost to any one type of phone scam.
In at least three cases, including Mr Lim's, victims transferred amounts of more than $700,000 over a one-month period.
Perpetrators used increasingly elaborate schemes, including grooming the victim over a period of time. Victims ranged from retirees to working professionals.
A police spokesman said there have been occasions where victims became suspicious, but the con artists got an accomplice to call up a "bank officer".
Added the spokesman: "Sometimes, even though they (the victims) know it doesn't seem right, they want it to be true because they've already put in so much money, thus the reluctance to come forward."
Most of these swindlers are Chinese-speaking and come from around the region, the police said.
It is believed that all these cases originated outside Singapore.
Ransom
Another popular hustle is the "kidnap scam", where callers pretend to be kidnappers asking for ransom.
The number of cases dropped by nearly half last year, but most of the 23 victims were the elderly and vulnerable.
Last year, 153 people were also molested on buses and trains, a 34 per cent increase from 2011.
The police said that this was because public transport is more crowded, which presented more opportunities for such crimes.
There was also a small increase in the number of thefts and related crimes, with 18,421 cases last year.
Police put the cause to a spike in bicycle thefts, which they said was a cause for concern.
In the first six months of last year, there were 697 cases involving stolen bicycles, 205 more than in the same period in 2011.
Other categories of crime, including housebreaking and commercial crimes, have seen slight improvements, with numbers decreasing from previous years.
This is especially for housebreaking and related crimes, which hit a 20-year low with 596 cases last year.
The police said that at least 300 cases were committed by 25 serial offenders arrested last year.
