SINGAPORE – Women were the main victims of Internet love scams here last year. About 80 per cent of people who were conned were women aged between 30 and 60 years old.

Most of the culprits claimed to be from the United Kingdom and they would establish a relationship with the victims online before cheating them of their money, said the Singapore Police Force at a briefing today (Feb 12).

In total, 383 people were cheated of $12 million this way, with the largest amount being about S$528,000. This was nearly double the number of cases in 2014.

While women were falling for romance, men were falling for sex. Credit-for-sex scams found mainly male victims aged 20 to 39. Some 1,203 cases were recorded last year, a massive increase of 1,723 per cent from 66 in 2014. The largest amount lost was about S$74,000.

In general,the scammers would convince men to buy gift cards in exchange for a meet-up, sex, a massage or escort services. These prepaid cards include iTunes gift cards, Alipay Purchase cards and MyCard.

E-commerce was another category that attracted online criminals. E-commerce crimes increased 30.5 per cent to 2,173 cases and in total S$1.76 million was lost. Online scams targeting buyers led 1,887 people to lose about S$1.34 million altogether. Police said 82 per cent of victims were between 20 and 49 years old.

The police said it would intensify public education to raise awareness of online scammers. It would also take tough enforcement action against local residents who allow their bank accounts to be used for collecting the proceeds of such crimes.

The bulk of online commercial crimes originated overseas. As a result, the police will be working closely with foreign law enforcement agencies to take action against overseas syndicates, said Commercial Affairs Department director David Chew.