Between 13 and 20 December 2018, the Police have received at least 8 reports of impersonation scams involving callers posing as employees from Apple and Google, with at least $15,700 cheated.
In this variant, a convenience store’s staff was reported to have received calls from unknown callers claiming to be employees from Apple’s iTunes and / or Google Play. These callers purportedly claimed to have received numerous complaints from customers who were unable to retrieve the monetary values from their purchased Google Play and iTunes gift cards. Thus, as part of their investigations, these callers requested for the activation numbers for both types of cards on the pretext of checking their validity. The staff then provided the activation numbers of several cards. The callers then told the staff that they will get back after updating their main office of the findings. However, no further calls were received.
The Police would like to advise retailers to adopt the following preventive measures:
- Be cautious when receiving unsolicited calls from unknown persons, even if they claim to be the staff of your suppliers;
- If in doubt, verify the authenticity of the calls by contact your supplier on their previously known phone numbers, instead of the numbers provided by the callers; and
- Educate your employees on this scam
If you would to provide any information related to such crimes, please call the Police hotline at 1800-255-0000, or submit it 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. Help spread the word and share this advisory with your employees and business partners to prevent them from being the next victim of scam.
SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE
22 December 2018 @ 12:00 AM