The Police would like to alert the public to two variants of scams where victims were duped into allowing their Instagram accounts to be taken over by scammers. From January to October 2022, Police has received at least 110 reports of such cases.
In the first variant, scammers would pose as potential buyers and directly message business accounts on Instagram. Before a transaction is made, the scammer would ask to verify the authenticity of the account. Unknown to the victim, the scammers would trigger a password reset on victims’ Instagram accounts. This resulted in a message being sent by Instagram to the victims containing the reset link (Refer to Annex A). Scammers then request that victims send over a screenshot of the message. Scammers would then use the link to reset the passwords of the victims’ Instagram accounts, thereby taking over control of these accounts.
In the second variant, victims would receive messages directly from unknown Instagram accounts, asking to participate in lucky draws/ games with an offer of prize money. Victims were instructed to change their Instagram email login details and forward the verification OTP received via SMS to the scammer as means of verifying the victims’ identity. Victims would subsequently lose access to their Instagram accounts.
In some cases, scammers had used these compromised accounts to post investment related scams and sent direct messages to followers about it. Members of the public are advised to adopt the following crime prevention measures:
- Be wary of unexpected requests from strangers and social media contacts, especially on requesting for screengrabs.
- Verify whether the account is legitimate by checking with your family and friends via different means or offline.
- Never give out your personal, banking account details, One-Time Passwords (OTPs), account reset links or any online account related information to anyone, including family and friends.
- Set up two-factor authentication (2FA) for your Instagram account by clicking on the profile icon at the bottom right >> Selecting the 3 lines at the top right >> Settings>> Security>> Two-factor authentication. Alternatively, you may refer to Instagram’s help center (Refer to Annex A for link) for more information on the setup of 2FA and on steps to secure your account if it has been compromised.
If you have any information relating 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’.
For more information on scams, members of the public can visit www.scamalert.sg or call the Anti-Scam Hotline at 1800-722-6688. Join the ‘Spot the Signs. Stop the Crimes’ campaign at www.scamalert.sg/fight by signing up as an advocate to receive up-to-date messages and share them with your family and friends. Together, we can help stop scams and prevent our loved ones from becoming the next victim.
Screenshot of Instagram Password Reset SMS
Link to Instagram help center: https://help.instagram.com/566810106808145/?helpref=uf_share
SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE
14 November 2022 @ 10:00 PM