Singapore is often regarded as a land of commercial success and opportunities. When cryptocurrency markets in the world were taking off in the regular markets, many investors in Singapore also started to take an interest in cryptocurrencies. However, due to the lack of regulatory structure and decentralized nature of many crypto projects, a massive number of people were targeted by scammers.

Ms. Goh is among the people who lost her entire investment from such a scam. She was introduced to Torque by a group of her friends. The scam enterprise was offering a massive return on the investment. Ms. Goh put her money into the scam, and she started to get regular returns. She told the media that for a considerable period, she received interest of 0.01% daily. However, in the next few days that it was a big scam.

Ms. Goh is a scam victim who refused to disclose her full name. She said that after some time, the daily return from the Torque app started to vanish. Before she could realize what was going on, the owners of the scam application liquidated the project and went offline. A good number of people lost their money and reported the incident to the police. The investigation is still underway.

Another victim of a similar crime who wishes to keep his name hidden told the media about the Initial Coin Offering scam. He heard about this new crypto project from an entrepreneur friend who invited him to purchase some newly published tokens. However, after some time, the value of the token hit near zero, and it never took off ever again. When no hope of recovery remained, he realized that it was some type of scam. He and his friends ended up lost around 35 Ethereum valued at $1,100 each at that time.

Singapore Police is Working Diligently to Educate People about Crypto Scams

The Monetary Authority of Singapore or MAS is the central financial regulator in the country. The MAS has issued a public warning several times to educate the public about crypto-related scams. Senior Minister Tharman Shanmugaratna at MAS told the media that the Central Bank of Singapore has been conducting an in-depth investigation of all crypto-related entities. The MAS has also launched programs to inform the masses about the risks involved with cryptocurrency trading.

Hong Qi Yu, CEO of a crypto trading platform, Tokenize Xchange, claims that many scammers are using third-party wallets to dodge investigation. He explained that many threat actors hack into accounts of vulnerable users or coerce their targets into handing over control of their accounts. Choo Oi Yee, Chief Commerical Officer at ADDX, opines that the most common form of cryptocurrency scams are Ponzi Schemes or pump and dump projects.