"We Can Recover Your Funds": The Second Scam That Follows the First

2026-10-30 · Philip Choo · AI9OS

The worst part of losing money to a scam is not always the money. It is the feeling afterwards: stupid, angry, desperate to fix it.

That feeling is exactly what the next scammer is waiting for.

A message arrives. Sometimes it looks like it comes from the platform you lost money on. Sometimes it is a "recovery specialist", a "fund tracing service", a "legal team". They know what happened to you. They can get your money back. There is just a small fee first.

What the police warned about

On 27 August 2026 the Singapore Police Force issued an advisory about fund recovery services scams aimed at people who had lost money on one platform. The pattern the police describe:

• Scammers claim to represent the platform, or to be a third-party service provider.
• They offer to recover the money you lost.
• They contact you by online message and ask for bank transfers, described as a deposit, a tax payment or a fee needed to release your funds.
• People find out only when their money never comes back, after paying again and again.

The police advice is blunt: be cautious of anyone requesting payment to recover your losses.

The fee that grows

These scams rarely ask for everything at once. The first payment is small and sounds reasonable: an "administration fee". Then the money is "ready", but there is a "tax". Then a "release fee". Then a "compliance charge" because the last payment was "processed wrongly".

Each payment makes the next one easier to justify, because you have already invested so much. That is the trap. No genuine recovery needs you to keep paying before anything comes back.

What Singapore law says about tracing money for a fee

Here is the part almost nobody is told.

In Singapore, finding out where lost or stolen property went is regulated work. The police licence page for private investigators lists the functions that need a licence, and one of them is "obtaining and giving information as to the location or recovery of lost or stolen property." Someone paid to do that needs a private investigator's licence from the police, under the Private Security Industry Act 2007.

And there is a second rule. The same page says a licensed private investigator is not allowed to solicit for services on their own. Only the licensee of a private investigation agency can advertise private investigation services.

So a stranger who contacts you out of the blue, offering to trace and recover your money for a fee, is either:

• working for a licensed agency, which they should be able to name, or
• doing something the licence rules do not allow.

That does not make every recovery offer a scam. It gives you a simple question that real professionals can answer and scammers usually cannot.

Four questions before you pay anyone

1. Which licensed agency are you with? Get the name, then look the agency up yourself rather than trusting a link they send.
2. Why do you need money before you have done anything?
3. Why are you contacting me? Genuine firms rarely find victims by cold messaging them.
4. Can I check this with the police first? Anyone genuine will say yes.

If the answers are vague, pushy or urgent, stop.

What actually helps

The routes that genuinely help start with no fee at all:

1. Tell your bank immediately if your account or card details may have been compromised.
2. Make a police report.
3. Check suspicious offers with the ScamShield helpline or app before you pay anyone anything.
4. Tell family and friends, especially anyone who lost money on the same platform. The same offer may reach them next.

Nobody can promise to get scammed money back. Anyone who promises it, for a fee, is the warning sign.

If you ever do want to hire an investigator, here is what the Singapore licence actually requires and how to check an investigator is licensed.

This is general information about Singapore law and a police advisory, not legal advice about your situation.

Sources

• Singapore Police Force, "Police Advisory on Fund Recovery Services Scams in relation to the 'Fun Coffee' Platform", 27 August 2026, police.gov.sg.
• Singapore Police Force, "Apply for Private Investigator Licence", police.gov.sg, last updated 14 September 2026, read 12 October 2026.
• Private Security Industry Act 2007, Singapore Statutes Online.