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The Singapore Police (SPF) released a notice on Sunday (March 7) to warn the public about WhatsApp messages requesting personal information or sharing links, even if they are from family contacts.
The scam involves compromised WhatsApp accounts, where the scammers gain access to the victims’ WhatsApp accounts after obtaining the victims’ six-digit verification code directly or through the victims’ voicemail accounts using the PIN. default provided by telecommunications service providers.
“The scammers would use the compromised WhatsApp accounts to impersonate the victims and communicate with the victims’ friends or contacts,” police said.
“Scammers tricked contacts into providing their personal information or sent phishing links to fake websites to obtain their banking credentials and one-time passwords (OTP).
“Victims’ contacts will only know that they have been scammed when they discover unauthorized transactions made from their bank accounts.”
The public is advised to remain vigilant to avoid becoming a victim of scammers and to take the following crime prevention measures:
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Never share your WhatsApp account verification codes, personal information, bank details and OTPs with anyone;
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Be careful of unusual requests received through WhatsApp, even if they were sent by your WhatsApp contacts;
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Protect your WhatsApp account by enabling the ‘Two-Step Verification’ feature. This can be done by opening WhatsApp and going to ‘Settings’ → ‘Account’ → ‘Two-Step Verification’ → ‘Enable’; Y
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Change the default PIN for your voicemail account to avoid easy access by scammers. If you do not have use of your voicemail account, contact your telecommunications service provider to disable the feature.
If you have information related to these types of scams, call the Police Hotline at 1800-255-0000, or submit it online at www.police.gov.sg/iwitness.
For more information on scams, members of the public can visit www.scamalert.sg or call the Scam Hotline at 1 800-722-6688.
They can also register as an advocate at www.scamalert.sg/fight to receive updated messages and share them with their loved ones.
