WhatsApp text from 'MOM' to withdraw $2,800 from government is fake

Several Stompers alerted Stomp to a message that has been circulating around WhatsApp, which said that people who worked between the years 1990 and 2019 "have the right to withdraw $2,800" from the Singapore government.

Stomper Kevin shared the message with Stomp which includes a link: 'http://bit.ly/gov-sg'.

The link is meant to direct people to check whether they are eligible for withdrawing the promised amount. 

The message also comes with a preview to the website, showing that it would open up to: "www.mom.gov.sg".

After clicking on the link, the page opens up to a website with the link: 'http://6uio.com/sg/'.

Stomper Anonymous shared a screenshot of the page which shows it loaded with a header 'Ministry of labor and Manpower'.

Kevin said to Stomp in a phone interview: "If it's real, it should be Ministry of Manpower and not Ministry of labor and Manpower. There's no such Ministry with that name right."

Also, the word 'labor' should have been spelled as 'labour' and the letter 'L' should have been capitalised.

Kevin added that nothing on the page loaded after he clicked on the 'Menu' button on the page.

The same page no longer appears when the link was accessed again at about 3.30pm. 

Instead, a warning comes up to indicate: "Google Safe Browsing recently detected phishing on 6uio.com." 

The Ministry of Manpower has released a statement on their Facebook page, saying that the WhatsApp message is fake.