Five men, aged between 24 and 27 have been arrested for their suspected involvement in illegal telecommunication activities.

The police said in a statement that these activities facilitated various scams in Singapore.

Officers from the Police Intelligence Department and the Commercial Affairs Department conducted an island-wide operation between May 29 and 30, resulting in the arrests of the five men suspected of being part of a syndicate involved in one-time password activation services.

The men allegedly used local SIM cards to create WhatsApp accounts and linked Paynow numbers to bank accounts to launder scam proceeds.

These WhatsApp accounts were purportedly provided to overseas-based scammers who used these accounts to target Singapore residents through job scams, e-commerce scams, fake friend call scams, government officials impersonation scams, loan scams, lucky draw scams and malware-enabled scams.

Over 14,000 pre-paid SIM cards, several SIM card hubs, CPUs and computer monitors, routers, mobile phones and other accessories were seized.

Three men will be charged in court on May 31 with an offence of abutment by conspiracy to commit cheating. This carries a jail term of up to10 years and a fine.