SINGAPORE – At least 28 people have fallen prey to banking-related phishing scams since last month, losing at least $114,000.
The police on Sunday (June 5) warned of an increase in phishing scams where swindlers impersonate bank staff and target victims through phone calls or SMS messages.
In one of these scams, victims would receive phone calls from people pretending to be bank employees.
The caller would request for the victims’ personal details, like their Internet banking username and password, under the pretext that the bank needed them to verify transactions in the victims’ account.
In other cases, the caller said the victim was under investigation for transferring large sums of money to another bank.
After the victims provided their details, they would receive one-time passwords (OTPs) on their mobile phones. The callers would then ask the victims for the OTPs.
In another type of scam, victims would get unsolicited SMS messages claiming that their debit or credit card had been blocked due to unusual activities.
Other messages said the victims’ bank account had been frozen as the “bank account was unusual”.
The SMS would direct victims to click on a link, which was a spoofed Internet banking log-in page where they would furnish their online banking username and password.
Then, the victims would be redirected to another spoofed webpage where they were asked to key in the OTPs received on their mobile phones.
“Victims of both variants will only discover that they…
