The police have disrupted scam attempts involving some 383 victims during a two-month-long operation which ended on Oct 31, preventing potential losses of over $17.4 million.

In a news release on Thursday (Nov 5) evening, the police said they partnered with digital payment token (DPT) service providers and foreign law enforcement agencies, for the operation which began on Sept 1.

The DPT service providers included Coinbase, Coinhako, DTCPay, Gemini, Independent Reserve, OKX, StraitsX and Upbit, while the foreign law enforcement partners included the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Australia’s New South Wales Police Force and the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.

Led by the police's Cyber Command, advanced blockchain analysis was conducted using tools from Chainalysis and TRM Labs to identify victims across multiple scam typologies, including government officials impersonation, investment and job scams.

This was supported by timely customer information from the participating DPT service providers, allowing police officers to conduct targeted interventions over the phone and in-person, resulting in the identification of the 383 victims and averting losses of over $17.4 million, the police said. 

The collaboration with the police's foreign partners also led to the identification of 32 foreign victims across jurisdictions, allowing intervention efforts to be undertaken before further losses were incurred.

Police said the outcome underscores the importance of sustained public-private partnership as well as timely cross-border intelligence sharing in combating scams.

"Cyber Command will continue to expand its network of partners and deepen cooperation with foreign law enforcement agencies across more jurisdictions, to safeguard the public through proactive, intelligence-driven and collaborative operations," the police added.

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editor@asiaone.com 

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