House byline
Security correspondent
Rajesh Pillai is a house byline for InfoHandle’s Security desk.
Singapore Civil Defence Force crews forced entry into a shuttered Bukit Batok coffeeshop at about 3:50 a.m., evacuating 30 residents and sending one person to hospital after fire engulfed three food stalls.
Police said 280 people aged 15 to 81 are under investigation after a two-week operation tied to more than 633 reports and nearly S$4.4 million in losses.
Police say a 39-year-old man entered the Marina Bay circuit with an invalid ticket before staff detained him, while a 35-year-old associate was arrested nearby during the Formula 1 weekend.
A 51-year-old cyclist died after a collision with a car at Boon Lay Way and Jurong West Street 64; police arrested a 72-year-old driver for careless driving causing death as injury crash statistics rise.
Police logged at least 148 hotel and booking-platform phishing cases since January 2026, with losses of at least S$185,000, often after WhatsApp messages reused real reservation details.
At least S$1.4 million has been lost since July to phishing sites promoted through social media advertisements for cheap household goods and fashion items.
SCDF extinguished a blaze in an East Coast Park boat-storage compound on Thursday afternoon, sending a plume visible along the expressway and taking one firefighter to hospital as a precaution.
Police warned that scammers are hijacking Lalamove “buy for me” jobs to trick riders into buying Roblox gift cards, redeeming the codes and cancelling orders—13 cases since September with at least S$2,000 lost.
Police said 77 people aged 19 to 80 are under investigation after a five-day islandwide operation in late September targeting unlicensed moneylending helpers and harassment crews.
Police say a 32-year-old man will be charged with murder after a 73-year-old died and a 53-year-old was wounded at Block 61 Telok Blangah Heights; the suspect later surrendered and was arrested nearby.
Police seized a fake CPIB pass and S$6,000 in scam cash from a 40-year-old runner allegedly collecting on behalf of Chinese police impersonators.
Police say at least 246 people lost S$1.4 million since July after fake Facebook, Instagram and TikTok ads for bargain goods sent them to credential-harvesting checkout pages.
A ninth-floor bedroom fire at Block 479 Segar Road sent three people to Singapore General Hospital and prompted police and firefighters to clear about 100 neighbours on Sunday morning.
Scammers hijack students’ WhatsApp accounts to bill parents for fake overseas programmes, with at least eight cases and S$18,000 lost since September.
The Ministry of Transport reiterated it never issues public transport vouchers through Telegram after police flagged OTP hijacks tied to fake voucher infographics that compromise accounts and spam contacts.
Officers found 1,290 cannabis blocks hidden in a glove shipment after scan anomalies on 24 September; the drugs were transiting Singapore for another country, authorities said Friday.
The Commercial Affairs Department charged 22 people after a loan-recovery scam persuaded victims to buy gold bars and hand them to couriers posing as bank inspectors, with reported losses near S$640,000 across 14 cases.
Fraudsters hijack students’ WhatsApp chats to sell fake exchange placements and AI courses, then collect PayNow QR payments from parents.
State Courts charged Ye Lin on 29 September with communicating a false message and obstructing justice after an AI-generated crocodile photo prompted a Pandan Reservoir search in August.
Police say at least 119 cases since January followed Harvey Norman cold calls and fake MAS officers, with victims told to buy gold or move cash to safe accounts.
ICA officers found drugs hidden in biscuit packaging on a Malaysia-registered bike on 23 September; a follow-up search in Tampines added more narcotics worth over S$1 million, the agencies said Monday.
Police said enhanced data sharing with Meta led to action against nearly 3.8 million scam-linked accounts and pages on Facebook and Instagram in the first half of 2026.
Police arrested five people after a man reported losing S$155,600 in cash when he was bumped into at an Orchard Road underpass. Most of the money was recovered, with about S$3,000 outstanding.
A 50-year-old man is set to be charged with arson after a fire involving an oil tin and a burning garment at the entrance of Masjid Moulana Mohamed Ali at UOB Plaza on Sept 25. No one was injured.
A joint ICA and police statement on Sep 25 puts confirmed losses at S$8.8 million across 148 cases since January, splitting fake officer calls from fraudulent social media ads offering help to secure Singapore PR.
Police said 259 people aged 16 to 82 are assisting investigations after a two-week islandwide operation linked to more than 648 scams with about S$5.2 million in reported losses, as mule-related banking curbs and caning penalties remain in force.
Singapore Civil Defence Force firefighters forcibly entered a 12th-floor Housing Board unit at Block 426 Pasir Ris Drive 6 on Thursday evening, extinguishing a bedroom and living-room blaze that prompted police and SCDF to evacuate about 50 residents as a precaution while the owner was at work.
The National Parks Board activated contractors to search for a black spitting cobra near Mei Hwa Drive in Serangoon Gardens after residents reported multiple sightings, though surveys have not yet captured the snake, and officials urged the public to keep distance from the highly venomous species.
The Cyber Security Agency warns of quishing—QR-code phishing—on carpark payment stickers and spoofed LTA-style notices, urging drivers to verify URLs before scanning and to report tampered kiosks to police and CSA channels.
Royal Malaysia Police arrested a 27-year-old Malaysian nicknamed Da Xiang and transferred him to Singapore on Tuesday, alleging he coordinated government-impersonation scams that laundered at least S$500,000 through runners crossing the Causeway.
ScamShield’s link checker and the 1799 helpline are fielding a wave of reports about fake DBS and UOB login pages, as police and banks repeat that digital tokens are set up only inside official apps—not through emailed links.
A 27-year-old Malaysian nicknamed Da Xiang faces court on Sept 23 after Royal Malaysia Police handed him to Singapore officers, with police linking him to at least S$500,000 in laundered scam proceeds and gold collected by runners.
At least 12 trading-card job scams since Aug 25 have cost victims more than S$71,000, police said on Sept 14, as fraudsters pair Pokémon-style tasks with cryptocurrency deposits on fake platforms.
Police warned on Sept 20 that fake Singapore Police Force pop-ups are locking browsers and harvesting card details, with victims charged unauthorised foreign-currency amounts after paying bogus fines.