The Police published an alert to warn of a new type of technical support scam where at least four victims lost over S33,000.
Scammers would impersonate PayPal in order to gain access to and steal money from the victim’s bank account. Since January 2022, at least four victims have fallen prey to this new variant. One of the victims had lost about $33,000.
How is the scam done?
Victims would receive e-mails containing PayPal invoices that listed details of unauthorised transactions, for goods or services from third-party vendors.
Victims who noticed this would then proceed to contact the helpline contact number included in the e-mail to dispute the transaction and request for a refund. Victims would then be transferred to a scammer impersonating an “agent from the third-party vendor” who would claim to be able to assist them.
The fraudster would tell the victims to install software on their computers in order to cancel the transaction. Victims would be unaware that the program would allow scammers to remotely manipulate their machines. After installing the program on the victims’ computers, the fraudsters would ask them to connect into their online bank accounts. Scammers would take over control of the victims’ computers once they logged into their bank accounts and move monies out of the victims’ bank accounts without their authorization.