SINGAPORE – A 27-year-old acting as a runner for scammers was caught by the police, all thanks to a victim who lured him out.

Mr Mike Chen (not his real name), 20, tipped off the police that he was meeting the runner in the western part of Singapore to hand him $30,000 in cash.

Police officers waited for the runner to turn up at the meeting point and apprehended him at about noon on April 9.

Mr Chen, an exchange student from China, was a victim of a government official impersonation scam.

In 2024, there were 1,504 reported cases of such scams, with victims losing $151.3 million in total. Among these cases, 353 cases involved the impersonation of Chinese government officials.

Scam victims in Singapore lost a record high $1.1 billion in 2024.

Mr Chen told the media during an interview arranged by the police on May 5 that the scammer, who claimed to be an investigation officer from China, contacted him in February.

The man told Mr Chen his bank card was linked to an international money laundering case, and accused him of being a “suspect” in the crime.

He instructed Mr Chen to turn on his laptop’s camera in his room every day so he could be monitored.

Mr Chen also had to update the scammer about his whereabouts via text message five times a day.

The surveillance went on for about a month before the scammer told him he could be bailed out for $70,000.

“The ‘investigation officer’ said he would be my bailor, but I had to have the money in my bank account,” said Mr Chen in Mandarin.

“I trusted him because I had been speaking to him every day for a month, and I felt like I had developed a relationship with him.”

To get the “bail” money, the scammer told Mr Chen to lie to his parents that he was being investigated by the local authorities for selling his personal details after losing his passport.

On April 9, Mr Chen received a phone call from the fake officer, who told him to withdraw the money from his bank account in two sums and hand it over to his “colleague” – the runner – who was based in Singapore.

Mr Chen met the runner in the western part of Singapore at about 11am and handed him $40,000.

He had to meet the same man at another location, and hand him the remaining $30,...