A WOMAN remitting money abroad at the Maybank branch in Jurong East, was so anxious, staff became concerned.

Upon gentle probing, she revealed that she had received a call that her loved one had been kidnapped. The story was all too familiar to the alert staff, who figured the woman was a victim of a phone scam.

As it turned out, her family member was alive and well. While she was saved, 378 others were not so lucky.

The kidnap scam snared four victims while the rest mostly fell prey to conmen promising lottery or lucky draw prizes.

With an average of more than one person cheated every day, such commercial crimes has become an area of concern for the police.

These were among the few blips in the improved crime situation which registered 718 less cases. Reports of crime fell from 33,263 in 2006 to 32,545 cases last year, with most categories of crime showing a decrease.

Based on 100,000 of the population, it was the third-lowest in a decade. Housebreaking and crimes against persons, such as causing hurt, murder, rioting, rape and outrage of modesty dipped to 4,084 cases.

There were 18 murders last year, one up from the previous year, and all, but one, were solved.

Releasing the annual crime figures on Monday, Senior Assistant Commissioner Soh Wai Wah also identified snatch theft and robbery involving elderly victims - number of cases rose from 170 to 241 - and theft of metal items as other areas of concern.

There were 1,291 reports of metal theft, up 204 cases from the 1,087 in 2006.

The total value of metal items stolen was more than $6 million, against $4 million in 2006.

Commercial crime was up by 10 per cent and SAC Soh attributed the increase to phone scams. He said: 'Such phone scams, practically unheard of in 2006, claimed 378 victims who lost $4.6 million last year.'

Several variations have emerged. In lottery and lucky draw scams, victims were told to pay an advance fee into overseas accounts before they could claim their prizes. This ruse claimed 325 victims, who lost between $200 and $350,000 each.

By August, the phone scams had evolved and mystery callers would threaten victims' family members with hurt if a ransom was not paid. In all, four victims were cheated of about $80,000.

The next month, conmen, masquerading as police or court officers, would advise victims to remit money so as to close investigations into crimes they never committed in the first place. The 49 victims conned in this way lost more than $500,000.

Police have arrested three men - two Chinese nationals and a Taiwanese - aged between 35 and 40 in connection with the kidnap hoax.

To combat phone scams and crimes against the elderly, police have involved community groups so increase public awareness.

Noting that four out of 10 crimes have been solved with public assistance, SAC Soh said: 'The reduction in crime been due to police and community partnership that has been forged over the years. We will continue to involve the community by seeking their imputs to meet the safety and security challenges of the future and enlsiting their help to reach out to those amongst us who are more vulnerable to crime.'