50 minutes, 50,000 calls, US$1.2 million lost: Singapore’s high-speed scam

A Malaysian electrician was recruited by a syndicate and travelled to Singapore to set up devices in a rented house that would blast thousands of automated scam calls, with call origins masked to appear like they were being made locally.The devices transmitted over 50,000 call sessions over a 50-minute period, linked to around 18,000 phone numbers, 40 of which later featured in 42 police reports.The call sessions contained automated voice messages perpetuating scams from purported government agencies or financial institutions.In under three weeks, victims of these scam calls suffered losses of more than S$1.6 million (US$1.2 million).Chong Wei Hao, 42, was sentenced to jail for five years and three months and fined S$895 on Thursday.He pleaded guilty to one count of being party to a criminal conspiracy to deceive Singapore residents into believing the false information presented to them through the use of the telecommunication devices he had installed and maintained.Chong was a freelance electrician with about 15 years of experience in the trade in November 2024, when he was looking for jobs on Telegram for extra income.