The Singapore Police Force revealed that they received at least 1,188 reports of social media impersonation scams in the first half of this year (2020).
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The total amount cheated (from 2019 to 2020) is $2.8 million.
The scammers’ modus operandi include impersonating social media profiles of the victims’ friends on platforms such as Facebook or Instagram, where they would then ask the victims for one-time passwords sent to their phone numbers.
The Police are advising the public to:
- Be careful and wary of requests or offers from social media contacts about lucky draws and etc.
- Be cautious of URLs in unsolicited texts, especially deals that are seemingly too good to be true. (because it it’s too good to be true, it’s probably isn’t.)
- Verify the authenticity of the messages from official sources.
- Don’t tell anyone your personal, banking details and one time passwords
Images source: Facebook Business Support on Facebook, Instagram on Facebook
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