Senior Parliamentary Secretary Amrin Amin thwarts scam attempt

Attempting to pass himself off as CIMB group chief executive Zafrul Aziz, the would-be scammer ran through the usual playbook, dangling a "secret" business proposal worth more than $1 million as bait.

But Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Home Affairs and Health Amrin Amin, who was the target of the scam, saw through the ruse and had a cheeky reply of his own.

When the scammer asked for his e-mail address, Mr Amrin wrote back: "Why don't you e-mail to zafrul_nigerian_scam@idiot.com?"

Not the first time

Sharing screenshots of their conversation in a Facebook post on Tuesday, Mr Amrin warned that anyone could become a potential scam target.

He later told The New Paper that this was not the first time he had received such messages and thought it was good to highlight his latest encounter.

The scammer had messaged Mr Amrin on Instagram using the account "zafrul778", which has since been taken down.

Writing in broken English, the scammer introduced himself as "Tengku Zafrul" and said he worked for CIMB.

Claiming to have a business proposal involving an inheritance claim worth over $1 million, the scammer offered to send over more information and asked for Mr Amrin's e-mail address, prompting the retort.

In his Facebook post, Mr Amrin cited that there were 3,591 scams cases in Singapore in the first half of this year alone, amounting to $83.1 million in total losses.

The largest sum cheated in a single case was $4.3 million, through an investment scam.

Asking the public to beware and pointing them to the police and National Crime Prevention Council's Scam Alert website, Mr Amrin wrote: "If it looks too good to be true, it definitely is."

This article was first published in The New Paper. Permission required for reproduction.