More than 100 people lose over $160,000 after getting messages they thought were from bank

The police are alerting the public to the re-emergence of a scam where scammers would impersonate banks through spoofed SMSes to phish for your online banking usernames, passwords and one-time passwords (OTP).

At least 103 people have fallen prey to the scam with total losses amounting to at least $161,000 in December.

In most of these cases, the victims would receive SMSes from a +65 number claiming to be from their bank.

These SMSes would warn the victims of possible unauthorised attempts to access their bank accounts and urge them to click on the embedded URL links to verify their identity and stop the transactions.

After clicking on the links, the victims would be directed to spoofed bank websites where victims would be misled into providing their internet banking credentials and OTP, which the scammers would use to make unauthorised withdrawals.

In some cases, the victims would receive WhatsApp messages claiming to be bank officers.

These scammers would impersonate bank security department officers and provide forged bank statements displaying unauthorised transactions made in the victims’ e-wallets.

The victims would only realise that they had been scammed when they discovered unauthorised transactions in their bank accounts.

The police would like to advise members of the public to adopt the following precautionary measures:

ADD – ScamShield App to protect yourself from scam calls and SMSes. Set security features such as transaction limits for Internet banking transactions and enable multifactor authentication for banks and e-wallets).

CHECK – For scam signs with official sources such as the ScamShield WhatsApp bot @ go.gov.sg/scamshield-bot, call the Anti-Scam Helpline at 1800-722-6688 or visit www.scamalert.sg. Banks will never send you clickable links via SMS. Look out for tell-tale signs of a phishing website and never disclose your personal or banking credentials, including OTPs to anyone, even one claiming to be a bank officer.

TELL – authorities, family, and friends about scams. Report any fraudulent transactions to your bank immediately.

If you have any information relating to such crimes or if you are in doubt, please call the Police Hotline at 1800-255-0000, or submit it online at www.police.gov.sg/iwitness. All information will be kept strictly confidential. If you require urgent Police assistance, please dial 999.