The Police would like to alert the public to police impersonation scams involving the use of a fake Singapore Police Force (SPF) website.
On 13 December 2017, the Police received a report from a 45-year-old woman who informed that a sum of $31,500 had been transferred from her bank account without her knowledge. She had earlier received a call from a man claiming to be a police officer who informed that she was suspected to be involved in illegal activities and was banned from leaving Singapore. The victim subsequently received a call from another person who directed her to a webpage resembling the SPF’s website where she was requested to key in her bank account details. The caller then told the victim to provide her One-Time Pin (OTP) code over the phone. The victim only found out that a large sum of money was transferred out of her bank account after receiving a call from the bank advising her to lodge a police report. Police investigations are ongoing.
The website provided by the scammer to the victim is a phishing site in disguise, designed to extract useful personal information and privileged banking details of unsuspecting victims, resulting in extensive monetary losses in most reported cases. The screenshots below show examples of the fake “E-Services” pages where such illicit phishing activities were perpetrated.
The Police would like to clarify that the official SPF website is www.police.gov.sg. Members of the public are advised to take the following precautions when they receive unsolicited calls, especially from unknown parties:
a. Ignore the calls. Scammers may use Caller ID spoofing technology to mask the actual phone number and display a different number. Calls that appear to be from a local number may not actually be made from Singapore. If you receive a suspicious call from a local number, hang up, wait five minutes, then call the number back to check the validity of the request.
b. Ignore instructions to remit or transfer money. No government agency will inform you to make a payment through a telephone call, especially to a third party's bank account.
c. Refrain from giving out personal information and bank details, whether on the website or to callers over the phone. Personal information and bank details such as internet bank account usernames and passwords, OTP codes from tokens, are useful to criminals.
The Police would also like to inform members of the public to be wary of befriending unknown persons online who may ask to use your bank account to either receive money or transfer money to someone else. You may be in the process of being recruited as a money mule. To prevent this, members of the public are advised to adopt the following crime prevention measures:
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Do not give your personal particulars or bank account details to strangers.
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Decline any request by acquaintance for money transfers – you might be committing a crime unwittingly by laundering money for another party.
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Report to the Police and the bank immediately if you suspect that you have received unknown monies in your account.
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If you are approached by anyone who claims to be a Police officer, ask for his warrant card to verify. If you are in doubt, please call 999 for urgent Police assistance.
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If you have information related to such crimes or if you are in doubt, please call the Police hotline at 1800-255-0000, or submit the information online at www.police.gov.sg/iwitness.
To seek scam-related advice, members of the public may call the anti-scam helpline at 1800-722-6688. They are also advised to share this advisory with family and friends to prevent them from being the next scam victim.
SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE
14 December 2017 @ 4:52 PM