SINGAPORE — At least 18 victims have fallen prey to a Short Message Service (SMS) scam since the start of Jan 2022, with losses amounting to at least S$120,000, said the police on Monday (Jan 31).
In its advisory, the Singapore Police Force (SPF) said that victims would receive an SMS stating that there were issues with their credit or debit cards. The scam message would prompt them to dial a number for assistance.
Over the phone, the scammers would ask victims for their card details and One-Time Password (OTP) under the pretext of assisting them.
Victims would only realise they had fallen prey to a scam after discovering fraudulent transactions made on their credit or credit card.
“Members of the public are advised to be aware of such fake SMSes as they are not official SMSes disseminated by any of the banks nor credit/debit card issuers,” warned the police.
Scam cases, particularly those involving banks, have been in the spotlight since the start of the year.
Last Sunday (Jan 30), OCBC Bank announced that it had made goodwill payments totalling S$13.7 million to 790 of its customers that had fallen prey to an SMS phishing scam.
DBS Bank, meanwhile, issued an alert on Jan 19 about SMS phishing scams after a screenshot of a message received by a customer about the “suspension” of his account was circulated online.
The police on Monday issued the following scam prevention advisory to members of the public:
- Always verify the authenticity of the information…
