The Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) would like to alert the public of an increasing number of scam calls from individuals claiming to be ICA officers. Between April and June 2024, about 500 cases of scam calls were reported. This was four times more than the number of cases reported between January and March 2024.

2.          Based on our findings from the reported cases, the nature of the scam calls are as follows:

• Usually originated from spoofed ICA numbers and unknown numbers, which might or might not contain the “+” prefix. 
• Conducted in English or Mandarin.
• Callers identified themselves as ICA officers and made claims that there were issues with the recipient’s passport/identity card/citizenship applications or that the recipient’s information was being used overseas for illicit activities.

3.          ICA would like to emphasise that government officials, including ICA officers, will never request members of the public over the phone or through text message to:

a) transfer money to bank accounts. ^[1]
b) provide banking details, including one-time passwords (OTPs);
c) click on links that lead to bank websites; or
d) install apps or software from third-party websites.

4.          ICA officers who call members of the public would make references to a specific application reference number and/or service applied by the individual. Otherwise, all correspondence will be conducted through official government email addresses.

5.          We encourage the public who have information relating to such scams or are in doubt to call the Police Hotline at 1800-255-0000, or submit it online at https://www.police.gov.sg/i-witness. All information will be kept strictly confidential. If you require urgent Police assistance, please dial ‘999’. For more information on scams, members of the public can visit www.scamalert.sg or call the Anti-Scam Helpline at 1800-722-6688.

IMMIGRATION & CHECKPOINTS AUTHORITY
05 JULY 2024