Singaporeans bilked for over $300k in phone scams

Singaporeans were conned of over $300,000 in telephone scams over the past four months. Police said 29 victims were scammed by people claiming to be police officers or Supreme Court staff. These victims lost a total of $275,500.

Another two were cheated of more than $50,000 after they were tricked into believing that their relatives have been kidnapped.

In a press statement on Saturday, police said the impersonation scam first came to light in September and as of Dec 6, 224 cases have been reported.

The conmen pose as police and court officers and accuse their victims of being involved in criminal acts or failing to attend court.

To avoid punishment, victims are told to transfer money to the officer’s bank account. (story)

STI’s triple over the past 5 years, among teens

The number of youngsters with sexually transmitted infections (STI) has almost tripled in the last five years. And in the first half of 2007, young people between 10 and 29 years of age accounted for 13 per cent of new HIV cases.

These were among a series of statistics Senior Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Balaji Sadasivan rattled off at the ‘Love them. Talk about sex’ workshop on Saturday.

In the first nine months of this year, 657 teens aged between 10 and 19 sought help for STIs, three times the number of cases in 2002.

This was a cause for concern, he noted.

‘Parents need to reach out to educate and protect their youths,’ he said. ‘If children have knowledge of sex but no values or values without knowledge, there’ll be trouble.’ (story)