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By Bing Hong Lok
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singaporeans lost a record S$1.1 billion ($822 million) to scams last year, with cryptocurrency schemes accounting for almost a quarter of the losses, the city-state's police force said on Tuesday.
The amount lost to scams increased by 70.6% from S$651.8 million in 2023, while the number of cases rose by about 11% to 51,501, the Singapore Police Force (SPF) said in a report.
Cryptocurrency scams accounted for 24.3% of total money lost, while the e-commerce scams were the most numerous, with S$17.5 million lost in 11,665 cases.
"The majority of the cases, more than 70%, saw less than S$5,000 in losses. The increase in total amount lost was driven by a small number of cases with very high losses," the SPF said, with four cases accounting for S$237.9 million of the losses.The police said that while people aged 65 and above only made up 8.4% of scam victims, the average amount lost per victim was the highest among the various age groups.
Of the total amount lost, Singapore's Anti-Scam Command recovered more than S$182 million, the police said.
In January, Singapore passed a new law allowing police to freeze bank accounts of potential scam victims to prevent further losses.
($1 = 1.3388 Singapore dollars)
(Reporting by Bing Hong Lok)
