SINGAPORE - A series of scams promoting fixed deposit schemes with high interest rates has claimed at least 12 victims, with losses amounting to $650,000 since January.

The police said in a statement on April 11 that the victims would receive an SMS message from scammers who used unknown numbers beginning with +65.

The messages would claim to be sent from banks and offer the victims fixed deposit schemes with high interest rates that had a limited period for registration.

For example, one message from “UOB Bank” offered an interest rate of 4.38 per cent per annum. Current fixed deposit interest rates range between 2.6 per cent and 3.35 per cent, an online check by The Straits Times showed.

The victims would then be instructed to contact a number, provided within the text message, if they were interested and to obtain more information.

When contacted via the number, the scammers would pose as bank agents – providing fraudulent identification such as staff passes.

The victims’ personal particulars would then be requested by the scammers under the guise of applying for the “promotion”, with a new bank account registered under the victims’ names. In some cases, scammers would send forged bank statements to the victims to convince them that new bank accounts had been created under their names.

The victims would then be instructed to deposit or transfer money into these accounts. The conmen would dissuade them from verifying the accounts by claiming that the accounts were meant to “hold the funds prior to the creation of their account”, or lying that there was an “activation period”.

Victims would realise they had been scammed only after logging into their banking applications and finding no changes made to the system records.

After checking directly with the banks, the victims would find out that the accounts – which they had transferred money to – belonged to other individuals and were not the supposed fixed deposit accounts created for them.

A fake SMS message (left) from scammers who used unknown numbers beginning with +65. In some cases, scammers would send forged bank statements (right) to the victims to convince them that new bank accounts had been created under their names.