SINGAPORE – The Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) warned the public on Friday (June 28) of a scam involving a caller pretending to be one of its officers.

ICA said a woman received a scam call on Tuesday that showed the number of its call centre, 6391-6100.

The caller asked the victim questions about her background and residence status for verification purposes, and threatened to deport her back to her home country or take her into custody unless she paid a “security deposit”.

The “security deposit” would be in the form of an Apple iTunes card, and the card activation number would subsequently be provided to the caller.

ICA said the call was not made by any of its officers and it does not call members of the public to request money in any form over the phone.

In the advisory, ICA advised members of the public to take several precautions when they receive such scam calls:

– Ignore the calls and caller’s instructions.

– If you receive a suspicious call from a local number, hang up and call the number back later to check the validity of the request. Caller ID-spoofing technology may have been used to mask the actual phone number used to make these calls.

– Foreign residents receiving calls from people claiming to be police officers or government officials from their home countries should verify the claims of the caller with their country’s embassy or High Commission.

– Do not provide personal information such as name, identification number, passport, contact, bank account or credit card details to suspicious or unknown parties.

Those who wish to provide information related to such scams can do so on 1800-255-0000 or at www.police.gov.sg/witness

For more information on scams, call 1800-722-6688 or go to www.scamalert.sg

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