Pause before the transfer
An investment offer can arrive through a friend, a chat group, a social-media advertisement or a message that appears to come from a known financial institution. The sales pitch may feature a professional website, a familiar logo and a short window to act. None of those details confirms who is actually receiving your money.
In Singapore, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) provides two useful checks: the Financial Institutions Directory and the Investor Alert List. They answer different questions. The Directory lets you look up financial institutions, licence types and activities. The Alert List identifies persons or entities that MAS says may have been wrongly perceived as licensed, authorised or regulated, or whose offers may have been wrongly perceived as approved or registered.
Verify the exact entity and permission
Search the firm’s full legal name in the MAS Directory. Check that the result refers to the same company—not a similarly named business—and examine the licence or activity shown. A firm’s permission to conduct one activity does not automatically mean it is authorised for every financial service or product.
Then independently find the institution’s official website and contact details. MAS warns that scammers impersonate regulated institutions, and it no longer lists those impersonators’ names and online identifiers on the Alert List. If someone contacts you using a phone number, website or messaging account they supplied, do not treat that contact as proof of identity. Use a separately verified official channel to ask whether the offer and representative are genuine.
Understand the Alert List’s limit
The Alert List is not exhaustive. MAS describes it as based on the information available at the time of publication. Therefore, a name not appearing on the list is not a certificate that the person, website, offer or investment is safe, licensed or suitable.
Likewise, finding a firm in the Directory is only one part of due diligence. It can help confirm the identity and stated regulatory status of an institution, but it does not tell you whether an investment fits your needs, whether you can afford the risk, or whether a particular message really came from that institution.
Look beyond the promised return
Before sending funds, get the product’s documents and answer basic questions in writing:
- What exactly am I buying, and who legally issues or manages it?
- What could make the investment lose value, become hard to sell, or fail to pay?
- What fees, lock-ups and withdrawal conditions apply?
- Who will hold the money, and is the receiving account in the name of the named institution?
- What official document supports the advertised return, and is that return guaranteed or only projected?
Claims of high or fixed returns with little or no risk deserve special caution. Do not let a “limited-time” bonus or pressure to keep the offer secret replace checking the documents and identity. Stop if the payment account, company name or contact channel does not match what you independently verified.
If something feels wrong
Do not transfer additional money to “unlock” a withdrawal or recover an earlier payment without independently verifying the claim. Save messages, receipts, website addresses and account details. Contact your bank through its official number promptly if you have paid, and report suspicious activity to the relevant Singapore authorities.
The directory and Alert List are tools, not shortcuts around judgment. Verify the entity, verify the channel, read the product terms, and only then decide whether the risks make sense for you.
Sources
- MAS: Investor Alert List — last updated 17 Sep 2026; verified 5 Oct 2026.
- MAS: Financial Institutions Directory — verified 5 Oct 2026.