FIRST, there were the calls promising lottery winnings of tens of thousands of dollars - if you would just transfer a few thousand dollars first as administrative fees.
Then came the scams which claimed that family members had been kidnapped. All it took was a sum of money to set them free.
Now, the latest variation in phone scams has taken a sinister twist.
Police here said the conmen now threaten to harm the individuals or companies picking up their calls if they do not pay up.
There have been 58 cases of such phone scams since March.
However, no one has been duped into paying these crooks, and neither have the callers made good on their threats.
A police spokesman said that the perpetrators usually called business offices threatening to disrupt the victim's business or harm family members if they did not comply with their demands.
The calls are believed to originate from other countries and the culprits usually speak in Mandarin with Chinese or Taiwanese accents.
They even claimed to have connections with the underworld and, at times, said they needed money to flee Singapore because of the many crimes they had committed here.
If the ones who picked up their calls are women, the conmen would threaten to kidnap them before taking nude photographs of them.
The police said in a statement: "Members of the public should never reveal any of their personal details, including those of their business or family, to the caller."
Those who receive such calls can contact the police on 999 or 1800-255-0000.
