SINGAPORE - More people have been charged in relation to a spate of malware scams reported between May and June 2023, with some of them acting on behalf of a criminal syndicate.

       Three men and three women, aged 20 to 35, appeared in the State Courts on Nov 4 to receive their charges.

       They had allegedly opened new bank accounts and gave the account details to a criminal syndicate, according to the police.

       The bank accounts were then used to facilitate transfers of money amounting to almost $8 million between September 2022 and May 2023.

       The police had received numerous reports in March 2023 that described malware being used to compromise mobile devices. This led to unauthorised transactions being made from victims’ bank accounts even if they did not divulge their one-time passwords (OTPs) to anyone.

       Eight people were arrested after an islandwide police operation between June 13 and 14, 2023.

       One of them was Raphael Cher, 25, who had first appeared in court in June 2023. On Nov 4, he received more charges.

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       He now faces 36 charges in relation to the case and is set to return to court on Nov 11.

       According to the police, Cher had allegedly acted as the middleman in the syndicate by helping to recruit members. He also passed instructions from the syndicate to members of the criminal group.

       Of the six people who received their first charges in court on Nov 4, Jolin Ng Ee Jun, 25, faces three counts of abetment of cheating and four charges for facilitating the transfer of benefits of criminal conduct.

       She had allegedly conspired with Cher to open bank accounts with Standard Chartered Bank, UOB and OCBC Bank and also registered businesses to open corporate accounts before giving up the details to Cher and another unknown man.

       She had also passed on details of her companies to Cher and another man named Darren Yap Sheng to allow Yap to open remittance accounts.

       Investigations showed she had helped receive and transfer Yap’s criminal proceeds.

       In response to The Straits Times’ query, a police spokesperson confirmed that investigations into Yap are still ongoing.

       Ng Kam Seng, 24, faces eight charges in total – two for abetment of cheating, two under the Computer Misuse Act, two for recruiting three others to relinquish their bank accounts, one for facilitating transfers of funds for the syndicate and one for providing false information to a police officer.

       Investigations show he had allegedly opened bank accounts with OCBC and UOB and given the account details to Cher. He had also received $835 of Yap’s criminal proceeds before lying to a police officer that he was a victim of a phishing scam.

       Gladys Tan Choo Peng, 35, faces one charge for abetment of cheating, one under the Computer Misuse Act and one for facilitating the benefits of criminal proceeds.

       She had allegedly opened a bank account with UOB and provided the details of her account to Cher, and registered a shell company to aid Yap’s transfer of illicit proceeds.

       Jolin Ng, Ng Kam Seng and Tan will return to court on Nov 25.

       Crystal Kwek Qian Er, 20, faces one charge under the Computer Misuse Act for allegedly relinquishing her UOB account to Cher. She will return to court on Dec 12.

       Arellano Gian Paul Aquilon, 26, faces one charge for abetment of cheating, one under the Computer Misuse Act and three charges for facilitating the benefits of criminal proceeds.

       He is accused of opening a StanChart account and relinquishing control of the account to Cher and Yap. He is also accused of facilitating the transfer of $81,000 of criminal proceeds with his bank accounts. He will return to court on Dec 16.

       Javier Tan Jia Wei, 25, faces eight charges – three for abetment of cheating, one under the Computer Misuse Act, three for facilitating the benefits of criminal proceeds and one under the Companies Act.

       He had allegedly opened bank accounts with UOB and DBS and gave the details to Cher. He also registered two shell companies and gave the details to Yap to enable him to open remittance accounts.

       He allegedly facilitated the transfer of $61,845 of Yap’s criminal proceeds through the bank accounts, and failed to discharge his duties as a director of his registered company. He is the only person to indicate a guilty plea and will return to court on Dec 18.

       In a Nov 3 statement, the police urged the public not to download any suspicious Android Package Kits (APKs) from unknown sources.

       ST had previously reported that victims of a malware scam are typically directed to download an APK file through such websites or messaging apps to receive gifts or deals. An APK is an app solely for Android users. Once downloaded, the malicious APK allows scammers to access and take control of the victim’s device remotely.

       This was the mode of operations employed in major malware scam campaigns to hijack victims’ devices and steal their money.

       In September, the police said at least nine cases of malware scams have been reported in Singapore since Aug 30, with losses amounting to around $223,000.

       Annual statistics from the police show at least $34.1 million was lost to more than 1,890 cases of malware scams reported in 2023.