The Singapore Police Force warned the public about a new scam which claims that the receiver’s credit or debit cards have been suspended.
This scam messages were sent via SMSes and already 18 people have lost about $120,000 in such scams in January.
Modus operandi
Scammers behind this scam sent a message via SMS from a ‘fake number’ to potential victims claiming that their credit or debit cards have issues.
In the message, a phone number was provided for potential victims to call and resolve the issue at hand.
After the potential victims have called the number, the scammers will tell them that there are issues with their debit/credit cards and will ask them for their card details and their one time password (OTP) for the sake of ‘helping them’ resolve their issues.
Afterwards, the scammer will use the victim’s card details to make fraudulent transactions.
Police advisory
The Police also noted that these messages did not come from any banks or issuers of the credit/debit cards.
They added that the public should always check with official bank sources or call the numbers listed on their bank cards to verify if such messages are true or sent by them.
Personal details should always be kept confidential and not disclosed to people that they do not know as well as not transferring funds into accounts of unknown peple.
Any such transactions which seems dubious should be reported to the bank first hand.
The Police also urged the public to download ScamShield, which uses artificial intelligence to identify such scams.
Phone numbers that were reported by other users of ScamShield which are used in scams will also be blocked.
The app is currently available only for users of Apple iPhones and it will be introduced to the Android system in the near future.
Image source: Singapore Police Force, Unsplash.com