The Police would like to alert members of the public to the re-emergence of a phishing scam variant where scammers would impersonate banks through spoofed SMSes, to phish for victims’ online banking usernames, passwords and One-Time Passwords (OTP). In December 2023, at least 103 victims have fallen prey, with total losses amounting to at least $161,000.
In most of these cases, victims would receive SMSes from “+65” numbers 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, 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. 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: