SINGAPORE, June 5 (The Straits Times/ANN): At least 28 individuals have fallen prey to banking-related phishing scams since final month, shedding at the least S$114,000 (RM365,000).
The police on Sunday (June 5) warned of an increase in phishing scams the place swindlers impersonate financial institution workers and goal victims by means of cellphone calls or SMS messages.
In one of these scams, victims would obtain cellphone calls from individuals pretending to be financial institution staff.
The caller would request for the victims’ private particulars, like their Internet banking username and password, beneath the pretext that the financial institution wanted them to confirm transactions in the victims’ account.
In different instances, the caller mentioned the sufferer was beneath investigation for transferring giant sums of cash to a different financial institution.
After the victims supplied their particulars, they’d obtain one-time passwords (OTPs) on their cellphones. The callers would then ask the victims for the OTPs.
In one other rip-off variant, victims would get unsolicited SMS messages claiming that their debit or bank card had been blocked as a consequence of uncommon actions.
Other messages mentioned the victims’ checking account had been frozen because the “bank account was unusual”.
The SMS would direct victims to click on on a hyperlink, which was a spoofed Internet banking log-in web page the place they’d furnish their on-line banking username and password.
Then, the victims can be redirected to a different spoofed webpage the place they have been requested to key in the OTPs acquired on their cellphones.
“Victims of both variants will only discover that they had been scammed when they were notified of unauthorised transactions made from their bank accounts,” the police mentioned.
They advise the general public to at all times confirm the authenticity of claims of issues with their financial institution accounts or playing cards issued by the financial institution with the official financial institution web site or sources, and report any fraudulent transactions to their financial institution instantly.
“Do not click on dubious URL links provided in unsolicited text messages. Banks do not send SMSes containing links,” they added.
Those with info associated to such crimes can name the police hotline on 1800-255-0000 or submit it at www.police.gov.sg/iwitness
The police advise the general public to name 999 in the event that they require pressing help.
More scam-related recommendation may be discovered at this web site or by way of the anti-scam hotline on 1800-722-6688. – The Straits Times/ANN