52 victims lose $2.3m to scammers impersonating Iras officials

At least 52 people fell prey to scammers impersonating officials from the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (Iras) in 2023, with losses amounting to about $2.3 million.

- Sarah Koh

Iras said on March 19 that it has also seen an increase in scam attempts on taxpayers during the current tax filing season, which runs between March 1 and April 18.

Based on reports made to Iras by the public in 2023, 79 per cent of scams involved victims being offered tax refunds, and 15 per cent were of victims being asked to pay capital gain tax or income tax on investment-related profits.

Five percent of reports were related to phishing e-mails, while the other 1 percent of reports include fake stamp certificates scams and forged tax documents scams.

In February, The Straits Times reported that the number of scam cases in Singapore hit a record high in 2023, since the police began tracking cases in 2016.