Singapore police tackle $11M fake job crypto scam operation

Singapore’s police and Cyber Security Agency have issued a joint advisory on cryptocurrency scams disguised as job offers, after victims lost about $11.8 million. 

Both agencies are urging residents to treat unsolicited work-from-home crypto gigs as a red flag. 

How Singaporeans are getting tricked by fake job scams

The job scams usually start on social media when victims answer an advertisement promising an online job or an investment return. The victim is then walked through opening a crypto account and buying tokens by someone posing as a helpful guide. 

Unsurprisingly, the payout never lands, and in many cases, the target is also talked into handing over login details or a seed phrase, which lets the fraudster empty the account outright.

The Singapore Police Force and the Cyber Security Agency have named this pattern directly in a joint advisory regarding scams involving fake job offers and compromised software systems. Roughly $11.8 million has been lost to this particular fake-job scheme.

Singapore has put effort into its enforcement actions with the crypto industry throughout 2026 so far. From March 16 to April 15, authorities blocked around S$2.86 million (about $2.11 million) in damages, in collaboration with Coinbase and the South Korean exchange Upbit. Police interfered with more than 90 cases where victims had already begun sending funds.

A second, six-week operation ran from April 16 to May 31 and stopped the loss of more than S$4.2 million. The operation involved seven firms, including Coinbase, Coinhako, Gemini, Independent Reserve, OKX and StraitsX. 

In June, more than S$2.9 million was saved from scammers, and over 130 people were reached after being flagged by the exchanges. Chainalysis and TRM Labs provided the SPF’s Anti-Scam Centre and Cyber Investigation Branch with the necessary blockchain-tracing tools for all three operations.

Is Singapore collaborating with authorities abroad? 

In the June operation, the SPF said it shared blockchain intelligence from the case to the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Cybercrime Squad of the New South Wales Police Force in order to surface potential victims and syndicates abroad. 

Singapore lost about S$182.2 million to crypto-linked scams in 2025, roughly one-fifth of all scam losses that year. However, total scam and cybercrime cases fell by 24.8% to 41,974, and overall losses dropped to S$913.1 million from around S$1.1 billion in 2024. 

The police are advising the public to add security features such as the ScamShield app and two-factor authentication to their accounts and wallets, check unfamiliar offers, verify listings, and inform the authorities of suspicious activity through ScamShield or a formal police report.