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SINGAPORE – Be wary of WhatsApp messages asking for personal information or links to share, even if they are from family contacts, police said.
A scammer may impersonate them in the hopes of obtaining banking credentials or one-time passwords (OTP).
In an advisory issued on Sunday (March 7), police warned of recent bank-related phishing cases involving WhatsApp accounts that had been compromised.
The scammers seized people’s WhatsApp accounts by obtaining a six-digit account verification code from the victims directly or through their voicemail accounts using the default PIN used by telecom providers. This code, sent by SMS or a voice call, which can go to voicemail if the user does not answer, is necessary to verify a phone number linked to the account.
Using these compromised WhatsApp accounts, scammers send messages to victims’ friends or contacts to trick them into revealing their personal information or send phishing links to fake websites to collect their banking and OTP credentials.
These victims later learn that they have been scammed only when they discover unauthorized transactions made from their bank accounts, police said.
The police advised people to be vigilant and not share their WhatsApp account verification codes, personal information, bank details and OTP with anyone.
They can also protect themselves from these types of scams by enabling the two-step verification feature to create a six-digit PIN code that must be entered to access the account. Setting an associated email address allows the user to reset the PIN to protect the account and block the scammer if the account is compromised.
Police said people should change the default PIN for their voicemail account or disable voicemail service by contacting their telecommunications company.
Anyone with information related to these types of scams is encouraged to call the Police Hotline at 1800-255-0000 or submit it online.
For more information on scams, people can visit the Scam Alert website or call the Scam Hotline at 1 800-722-6688. They can also register here as an advocate to receive updated messages and share them with their loved ones.
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