The Police would like to alert the public to police impersonation scam involving the use of a fake Singapore Police Force (SPF) website.
On 3 April 2018, the Police received a report from a 60-year-old woman who informed that at least $300,000 had been transferred from her bank accounts without her knowledge. She had earlier received a call from an unknown man who claimed to be a police officer. The man alleged that the victim was involved in a case of money laundering before asking her for her personal details. The victim subsequently received a call from another unknown man who directed her to a webpage resembling the SPF website and he requested for her bank account details and One-Time Password (OTP). The victim subsequently later found out that multiple transactions were made from her bank account without her consent. The victim also deleted the bank notifications after she was told to do so.
Police investigations are ongoing.
The website 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 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:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
If you wish to provide any information related to such crimes, please call the Police hotline at 1800-255-0000, or submit the information online at www.police.gov.sg/iwitness. If you require urgent Police assistance, please dial ‘999’.
To seek scam-related advice, you may call the anti-scam helpline at 1800-722-6688 or go to www.scamalert.sg.
SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE
05 April 2018 @ 7:00 PM