Singapore joining Interpol-led crime task force to look into COVID-19-related scams

Singapore is joining an Interpol-led global financial crime task force, comprising US and UK, which will be looking into a number of areas, including COVID-19-related scams, according to a media report on Sunday. Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said Singapore is joining task force due to a need for greater international cooperation against rising threat of cyber fraud globally, Channel News Asia (CNA) reported.

“ situation has visibly worsened during COVID-19 pandemic with more people working from home and transacting online,” an MHA spokesperson said in response to queries from CNA. “Cyber criminals have taken vantage of this opportunity,” spokesperson said.

task force has three "clear priorities" to start with, Interpol director of cybercrime Craig Jones told CNA at its global complex for innovation in Singapore. This is base from which world police body fights cybercrime internationally. task force, initially comprising Singapore, United States, UK and Ireland, will look at illicit money flows in transnational financial crimes and how countries can combat se crimes more effectively.

“ second one is looking at counterfeiting or facilitating of (COVID-19) vaccines, wher it's online or is vaccines actually being shipped out,” said Jones, who will be leing task force.

This comes as Interpol has seen an increasing trend of online COVID-19 vaccine scams as countries roll out ir vaccination programmes, with networks conducting se scams having possible financial links in Singapore and or major financial hubs, according to Channel report. “re is nowhere to go online to buy a vaccine at moment. People need to understand this,” Jones was quoted as saying in report.

“But again, what criminals are n preying on is vulnerability of communities – that fear, effectively. But also using technology as well in order to carry out those crimes,” Jones said. Interpol said in a news release on March 24 that cyber criminals have set up illicit websites claiming to be legitimate national or world organisations offering pre-orders for COVID-19 vaccines. se websites offer to get payment in Bitcoin and or processing methods.

“Using tremark logos of major pharmaceutical companies producing approved COVID-19 vaccines, fake websites are suspected of being used to conduct phishing attacks and dupe victims into giving charitable donations,” Interpol said. “In dition to opening up ir computer to cyberattacks when attempting to purchase alleged COVID-19 vaccines online, people also run risk of having ir identity stolen,” it said.

Interpol secretary-general Jurgen Stock said in a statement that networks behind se crimes have “global ambitions”. “Interpol is assisting law enforcement around world to both identify criminal networks and to dismantle m,” he said. world police body will also organise a global virtual meeting with its member countries to discuss threats and disruption methods in this area.

Interpol announced on March 3 that South African authorities h seized hundreds of fake COVID-19 vaccines following an Interpol global alert warning that vaccines would be a prime target for criminal networks. In China, police successfully identified a network selling counterfeit COVID-19 vaccines, raided its manufacturing premises and arrested about 80 suspects. More than 3,000 fake vaccines were seized at scene, Interpol said.

When asked if this transnational network selling fake COVID-19 vaccines h any links to Singapore, Jones said, “re's links everywhere.” “ links are re. So, what we see specifically sometimes is where money flows. criminals will look at any infrastructure that is able to facilitate those money movements,” he ded.

“So, re are a number of different links on our operations to countries that eir have those financial centres as well,” he said. Singapore’s Ministry of Health has said it is aware of scam sites falsely claiming to offer registration for COVID-19 vaccination, while police h in February warned public against “falling prey” to se vaccine scams.

public should be wary of COVID-19 vaccination text messages that come with an unofficial URL, or those that request for payment to get early access to vaccines, police vised. Besides COVID-19 vaccine scams, Jones said task force will also look into business email compromise scams, and identify criminals who exploit government schemes that have been set up to support businesses during pandemic.

“So we’re working with those countries directly at moment, trying to understand what is that threat picture,” Jones said, ding that Interpol will bring in more pilot countries in coming months.

Singapore has me a “strong commitment” to contribute extra staff to Interpol on short-term secondments, according to Jones. MHA spokesperson said task force’s purpose is to create a global anti-scam network, linking law enforcement operational units across world to share intelligence, insights and best practices, as well as to coordinate operations effectively. As a founding member of task force, Singapore will share its own insights from setting up of its national Anti-Scam Centre, spokesperson said.