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The police are investigating 36 individuals for their suspected involvement in illegal online gambling activities and misuse of bank accounts following a 12-day operation that ended on Nov 21.

The operation, which began on Nov 10, saw officers from the Criminal Investigation Department conduct a series of gambling suppression raids.

Among the 36 people investigated, the oldest is 69, while the youngest is 16.

Preliminary investigations revealed that 13 persons are believed to have gambled either using illegal gambling websites or mobile applications, and performed monetary transactions with bank accounts controlled by the illegal gambling syndicates.

Also under investigation are 23 individuals who are believed to have either sold or relinquished control of their bank accounts and/or Singpass credentials to illegal gambling syndicates.

Among the 23, some were allegedly deceived into handing over their accounts after responding to fraudulent job advertisements that falsely claimed bank account access was required for employment verification.

The police warned that they will continue to take firm enforcement action against those who engage in illegal gambling activities or who support operations as criminal enablers.

They also advised members of the public to reject offers to sell or "rent out" their bank accounts or Singpass credentials, and to be alert to job scams that request access to banking accounts or internet banking credentials.

The police are looking for a 32-year-old man for his alleged involvement in a knife incident along Boon Lay Drive on Saturday (Dec 6).

In response to reporters queries, the police said they received several calls for assistance at about 6.55pm on Dec 6.

"Upon arrival, officers found a 58-year-old man injured at the void deck of the block," the police added.

The man was conscious when he was conveyed to Ng Teng Fong General Hospital by the Singapore Civil Defence Force.

Following investigations, a 32-year-old man who is believed to be involved in the case, has been identified.

A female resident told reporters that she was drinking and singing karaoke with a group of neighbours when the incident happened.

The group noticed the man staring at them but did not pay attention to the matter as they did not know him.

Reporters reported the female resident as saying that the man later returned and started questioning her neighbours while holding on to two knives in his left hand and a chopper in his right.

She tried to calm him down but the man suddenly attacked one of her neighbours, the 58-year-old man, with a knife.

He was stabbed in his back.

The injured man immediately picked up a plastic chair to defend himself but ended up being slashed on his left forearm and forehead.

According to reporters, the suspect later fled towards Block 238 Boon Lay Drive.

Two knives and a chopper were seized at the scene, the police said, adding that efforts to trace the 32-year-old are ongoing.

A Tiger God statue made of clay was stolen at a Chinese temple in Balestier on Saturday (Dec 6) shortly past midnight.

Calling the theft “disrespectful to the deity”, Rochore Tua Pek Kong Temple on 249 Balestier Road urged the culprit to “do the right thing”.

In a Facebook post on Sunday, the temple wrote that closed-circuit television footage captured an elderly man loitering around the altar for about 30 minutes till 12.15am on Dec 6.

The statue, one of seven in the temple, pays tribute to the Tiger Deity who is believed to protect people against evil spirits.

“We sincerely appeal to the person involved to return the statue immediately and in its original condition”, they said, adding that the statue “belongs to the community”.

“Failing which, we will resort to legal action and press criminal charges.”

Reporters has contacted Rochore Tua Pek Kong and the police for more information.

The Competition Commission of Singapore (CCS) has taken Courts and Prism+ to task over unfair practices.

In a media release on Monday (Dec 8), the consumer watchdog said that the two retailers of consumer electronics and home appliances have used website design features that mislead consumers.

"Courts automatically added unsolicited items into consumers' shopping carts, while Prism+ used fake countdown timers and misleading stock indicators to pressure consumers into purchases," CCS added.

The agency said both retailers have since given an undertaking to CCS not to engage in unfair trade practices.

Unsolicited items added to cart by Courts

Courts was found to have charged consumers for products they never selected.

In one complaint raised by a consumer who selected an Apple iPad for purchase, an Acer vacuum cleaner was added to the consumer's checkout cart.

This practice puts consumers at risk of unknowingly paying for the unsolicited items if they fail to notice and remove such items before checkout.

According to CCS, Courts has received similar complaints since 2024 but took no action until it intervened in June 2025.

"Courts has given an undertaking to CCS to cease this practice immediately. In addition to making changes to its website, Courts also agreed to refund customers affected by this unfair trade practice," the agency added.

False urgency to pressure Prism+ buyers

Separately, homegrown electronics retailer Prism+ was found to have included features into its website that have the effect of creating false urgency to pressure consumers into hasty purchases.

According to CCS, Prism+ included "problematic features" such as a fake countdown timer, misleading stock indicators, unsubstantiated shortage and inflated discounts claims.

Based on CCS' investigations, the countdown timers served no technical function and were not linked to any of Prism+'s inventory systems.

The agency also found that the "In stock: running low" display was displayed despite monthly sales figure of a product representing only 7 per cent of Prism+'s total available stock.

Prism+ explained that the indicator is used for any product with inventory levels "above 100 units". This threshold was not disclosed to consumers.

When asked by CCS to explain its claims that "supply chain disruption" had affected other brands, Prism+ could not substantiate the claims and said that the statements were made in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In addition, CCS said their investigations showed that the discounts claims of "up to 67 per cent off" could not be achieved for ten of the products.

In its explanation, Prism+ said that this was due to "technical errors".

The consumer watchdog said that Prism+ has since rectified the said issues and provided an undertaking not to engage in unfair trade practices.

Tips for consumers

The commission has advised consumers to review their shopping car for unexpected items and verify that payment amounts match their intended purchases.

Consumers are also advised to question the authenticity of urgency claims before making impulse purchases.

CCS has also warned businesses that it is an unfair trade practice for businesses to charge for the supply of unsolicited products, or to make false or misleading claims to pressure consumers into making purchases. 

It added that businesses should ensure that consumers agree to the purchase of any product and provide clear disclosure of the price and nature of any add-on before checkout, adding that any statements made about products should be truthful and factually accurate.

SINGAPORE – The Singapore Customs seized a total of 17,279 cartons of cigarettes with unpaid duties on Nov 30 and Dec 1, arresting four people in the process.

The total duty and goods and services tax evaded exceeded $1.87 million, the Singapore Customs said in a statement on Dec 8, making it the authorities’ largest inland haul so far in 2025.

The contraband cigarettes were seized during two enforcement operations by the Singapore Customs, in Pandan Loop on Nov 30 and Jurong Port Road on Dec 1.

In the Nov 30 operation, customs officers raided an industrial building in Pandan Loop, where they spotted a Singapore-registered van reversing into a loading and unloading bay. Three men subsequently loaded brown boxes into the vehicle’s cargo compartment.

The officers then checked the van and uncovered 2,400 cartons of duty-unpaid cigarettes.

After further questioning, the men led the customs officers to a unit in the building, where another 3,195 cartons of duty-unpaid cigarettes were found.

Customs officers seized all 5,595 cartons of cigarettes, along with the van.

A 27-year-old Singaporean man driving the van and three Indian nationals – aged 30, 36 and 39 – were arrested.

In a follow-up operation on Dec 1, customs officers raided a warehouse in Jurong Port Road and uncovered 11,684 cartons of duty-unpaid cigarettes.

​Court proceedings are ongoing against all four men, the Singapore Customs said.

Under the Customs Act and the GST Act, buying, selling, conveying, delivering, storing, keeping, possessing or dealing in duty-unpaid goods are serious offences.

Offenders can be fined up to 40 times the amount of duty and GST evaded and/or jailed for up to six years. Vehicles used in committing such offences are also subject to forfeiture.

​The police are investigating 76 individuals for their suspected involvement in unlicensed moneylending activities following a five-day operation that ended on Nov 28.

The operation, which began on Nov 24, saw officers from the Criminal Investigation Department and the seven police land divisions conduct raids across Singapore.

Among the 76 people investigated, the oldest is 66, while the youngest is 17.

Preliminary investigations revealed that five persons had allegedly harassed debtors at their residences.

Also under investigation are 30 individuals believed to have acted as runners, assisting in unlicensed moneylending activities by carrying out Automated Teller Machine (ATM) transfers.

The remaining 41 people allegedly opened bank accounts, provided ATM cards and personal identification numbers, as well as internet banking tokens to illegal moneylenders to facilitate their unlicensed activities.

Police investigations against all 76 individuals are ongoing.

If found guilty of acting on behalf of an unlicensed moneylender to commit or attempt to commit any acts of harassment, the five suspects may be jailed for up to five years, fined between $5,000 and $50,000, and receive three to six strokes of the cane.

Those found guilty of facilitating moneylending by an unlicensed moneylender using a bank account, ATM card or internet banking token face a jail term of up to four years, a fine between $30,000 and $300,000, and up to six strokes of the cane.

Additionally, those who allow their bank account to be used by unlicensed moneylending syndicates for transactions may face prosecution and a ban from using ATM and internet banking facilities for a year.

The police also advised members of the public to stay away from unlicensed moneylenders and not to work with or assist them in any way.

They added that foreigners found to have borrowed from or who are convicted for aiding unlicensed moneylenders may also have their student or work passes cancelled and be subsequently deported from Singapore.

The National Environment Agency (NEA) has taken over 14,400 enforcement actions this year for smoking in prohibited areas, as of November 2025.

Smoking is currently banned in more than 49,000 indoor and outdoor premises, with NEA enforcement officers patrolling hotspots.

For instance, smoking is prohibited within five metres of bus stops to protect the public from second-hand smoke exposure.

In response to queries by reporters, a NEA spokesperson said: "We encourage smokers to be socially responsible when smoking in public places, and not to light up in smoking-prohibited places.

"Friendly and timely reminders from family, friends and other members of the community can help to reinforce the right social behaviour and norms."

Earlier this month, a man claimed he was fined $300 after leaving his extinguished cigarette butt on top of a rubbish bin.

SINGAPORE – The director of a construction company gave at least $192,000 in bribes to a facilities management director at the Singapore Zoological Gardens, now known as the Singapore Zoo.

At the time of the offences, the zoo was a subsidiary of Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS), which had awarded jobs worth more than $3.7 million and paid nearly $2.7 million to Ultron Construction.

Now known as the Mandai Wildlife Group, WRS suffered a loss of at least $192,000 due to inflated bids that Ultron had submitted under the corrupt arrangements.

​The company director, Wong Eng Kuen, 46, was sentenced to eight months’ jail on Dec 5 after he pleaded guilty to three graft charges involving at least $140,000 in total. He committed these offences in 2016.

Three other charges relating to the remaining amount were considered during his sentencing.

In April, Barry Chong Peng Wee, then 58, who is no longer working for the zoo, was sentenced to six years’ jail after obtaining more than $2.4 million in bribes from multiple people between 2005 and 2016.

Chong, whom the prosecution described as the “central orchestrator” of the graft offences, was also ordered to pay a penalty of more than $2.4 million.

He would have to spend an additional six years, seven months and 13 days behind bars should he fail to pay the amount.

Another accomplice Toh Yong Soon, then 39, was sentenced to three years and three months’ jail in May 2024. He is Wong’s brother-in-law.

He was working for another company called Shin Yong Construction (SYC) at the time of the offences.

In earlier proceedings, the court heard that Toh’s grandfather had set up SYC before he died in 2004.

Two of Toh’s family members – his father and his uncle – then carried on the company’s business.

In 2005, these two older men entered into a corrupt arrangement with Chong.

As part of the deal, Chong would ensure that WRS jobs were awarded to SYC in exchange for cash.

Toh joined SYC in 2009 and found out about the plan later.

His father and uncle have since been dealt with in court.

In late 2015, Toh and his uncle had a falling out, and the older man was removed from SYC.

Toh, who took over SYC’s operations from his uncle, later agreed to continue with the corrupt arrangement.

The invoices or quotations SYC submitted to WRS would be marked up so that Chong would obtain the inflated value as “commission”, the court heard.

Toh also agreed to recruit other contractors to join the corrupt arrangement. According to court documents, he later roped in multiple men linked to other firms.

For the current case, deputy public prosecutors Kelvin Chong, Shamini Joseph and Darren Sim stated in court documents that Toh then engaged Ultron through Wong.

The DPPs told the court that Wong had set up Ultron in November 2015 on Toh’s suggestion.

They said: “Although (Wong) had no prior experience in the construction business, he agreed to set up Ultron as Yong Soon told him that he could recommend jobs from WRS to Ultron and would teach him the ropes.

“(Wong) understood that Yong Soon would pass monies to someone in WRS, which investigations have revealed to be Barry, in order for WRS to award jobs to Ultron.”

Under this corrupt arrangement, Chong would phone Toh on a regular basis and inform him about upcoming WRS jobs or projects that Ultron could bid for.

Chong would also tell Toh the specific prices that they should bid to clinch the projects.

These prices were marked up by at least 20 per cent to account for the commissions to be paid to Chong.

Toh later told Wong the recommended prices, and the latter then made bids for WRS jobs by using the marked-up prices that Toh had provided to him.

Chong would also meet Toh at least once a month for lunch.

During these meals, he would provide Toh with a list of jobs that were awarded to various contractors, including Ultron.

As part of the corrupt arrangement, Chong would also indicate the amount of “commission” that he required for each job.

​Toh consolidated the money from the contractors, which included Wong, and passed the funds to Chong.

Toh gave gratification to Chong in the form of cash at least once a month, said the DPPs.

The prosecutors added: “The giving of corrupt gratification to obtain jobs with WRS circumvented the procurement processes that WRS has in place.

“These processes were implemented to ensure that contractors were given a fair chance to win WRS jobs, and WRS obtained works at a competitive price. The circumvention of these processes resulted in WRS overpaying for works across the period of offending.”

Court documents did not disclose how the offences came to light, but in October 2016, the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau started its investigation into the unlawful arrangement, bringing the scheme to an end.

SINGAPORE – When her parents noticed that food delivery payment for their hawker business was still not in after two weeks, Ms Pooja decided to check their account information.

She found that the bank account number for the payment for delivery orders on foodpanda had been changed.

The transaction history showed that between Oct 10 and 14, about $3,000 was paid to an unknown bank account, said Ms Pooja, 36.

She suspected that her parents had been the victims of a scam.

Ms Pooja, who declined to give her full name, made a police report on Oct 24. She also contacted Grab, foodpanda and Deliveroo.

Her parents, who run a stall selling Indian food, have been working with food delivery platforms for seven years, and this is the first time they have fallen prey to a scam.

“They were upset because it is a decent amount of money that we lost,” she said. “At the same time, my parents have gone through a lot of challenges, so they were not really fazed by it.”

Her parents had to stop food delivery orders on foodpanda for a week after that to rectify security issues. They could have made $2,500 during this period, said Ms Pooja, who helps out full time at her parents’ hawker stall in Tampines.

Her family is among food and beverage businesses that have recently fallen prey to scams.

Ms Pooja was speaking to reporters and other media outlets in an online interview on Dec 4 arranged by the police.

In some cases, the victims – the F&B businesses – would receive unsolicited calls from scammers claiming to represent food delivery platforms.

They would then phish for information and use it to access the victims’ food delivery platform accounts or e-mail accounts to maliciously update bank account details, add spoofed e-mail accounts and change account notification settings.

The victims’ earnings would then be diverted to the scammers’ bank accounts or payment service provider accounts.

In a statement on Nov 18, the police said there have been at least four such cases reported since August, with total losses of at least $42,000.

In Ms Pooja’s parents’ case, the scammers did not contact them at all.

She added that when she checked her parents’ e-mail account settings, she found that scammers had gained access to the e-mail account some time in July.

It is possible the scammers then managed to gain access to her parents’ food delivery platform accounts because the same password is used for many platforms, she added.

Scammers had tried to change the payment information of her parents’ Grab account in September, Ms Pooja said.

She added that someone from Grab then called her parents, who are in their 60s, to check if they were the ones who had made the change.

After clarifying that the change had not been authorised by her parents, Ms Pooja updated the password to their Grab account.

She said: “At the time, my father did not think that it would affect our other accounts, so he did not really pay much attention to it.”

It was only in late October that Ms Pooja discovered someone had changed the banking details for her parents’ foodpanda and Deliveroo accounts.

“We thought it was an issue with foodpanda. We contacted their finance team and they said that foodpanda had paid us,” she said.

She added that her parents’ Deliveroo account was affected too, causing them to lose about $50.

Her parents have managed to recoup $1,300 from foodpanda so far, said Ms Pooja.

The police said investigations into Ms Pooja’s case are ongoing.

In response to queries from reporters, foodpanda said it is aware of the recent scam variant targeting F&B businesses and that it has implemented measures to protect its vendor partners.

It added that it has been reaching out to vendors to raise awareness and is ready to help if there are suspected scam cases.

The food delivery platform also encouraged vendors to remain vigilant and to contact its support team if they notice suspicious requests, or unusual activity on their accounts.

“Any changes to sensitive information will require verification, and vendors will be notified through multiple channels – such as the vendor portal and e-mail – whenever their details are updated,” said foodpanda.

Also responding to queries from reporters, Grab said: “We contact the business’ authorised director directly whenever a request is made to change bank account details.”

It added that it is providing its merchant-partners with knowledge to combat fraudsters and will be introducing more security measures on its platform.

Ms Pooja said her parents will now be more vigilant in guarding their e-mail and food delivery platform accounts.

“I remind them to change their passwords periodically and to have two-factor authentication on their phones so that they get alerts more often,” said Ms Pooja.

When asked if her parents will continue using the platforms, Ms Pooja said: “Are they scared? No. We resolved all the security issues.

“Hopefully, they change some of their policies so that these things can be identified more quickly.”

Reporters has contacted Deliveroo for more information.

SINGAPORE – A fourth wanted man has been charged in court over his alleged links to a Singaporean-led syndicate operating in Cambodia involved in government official impersonation scams.

Jayen Lee Jian Hao, who was arrested in Bangkok and handed over to the Singapore authorities, is accused of an offence under the Organised Crime Act.

The 32-year-old Singaporean is allegedly a member of an organised criminal group that targeted Singapore victims, the Singapore Police Force (SPF) said in an earlier statement.

Lee, who was charged on Dec 5, is said to have facilitated an offence of cheating by being a caller in a scam centre in Cambodia on or around Sept 9.

His case will be mentioned again in court on Dec 12.

The Phnom Penh-based syndicate is said to be responsible for at least 438 reported cases of such scams in Singapore, involving some $41 million in losses.

The alleged masterminds of the group are two brothers – Ng Wei Liang and Ng Wei Kang. The group also included their cousin, Lester Ng Jing Hai, and Ng Wei Liang’s girlfriend, Christy Neo Wei En.

Ng Wei Kang, Neo and Lester Ng were charged in September under the Organised Crime Act and denied bail on Oct 2 owing to a risk of collusion.

In total, 34 suspects were placed on the wanted list in October. Three were subsequently caught and charged in court.

They include Singaporeans Wayne Soh You Chen, 27, and Brian Sie Eng Fa, 32, who were deported from Cambodia and Thailand, respectively. The two men were charged on Nov 17.

The third man – Malaysian Bernard Goh Yie Shen, 24 – was arrested by Cambodian police in Phnom Penh and deported to Malaysia.

​Goh was handed over to the Singapore authorities on Nov 17 and charged in court the next day. The cases against the three men are pending.

The group’s activities were disrupted during a joint operation by SPF and the Cambodian National Police on Sept 9.

SPF said it worked with the Cambodian police and the Royal Thai Police on the arrests.