The Singapore Police Force (SPF) alerted members of public that there was a new variation in the impersonation of Police officer scam which involved a fake SPF website.
A 41-year-old woman lodged a Police report on Wednesday (21 September) regarding a call received from an unknown person who claimed to be a Police officer.
She said that the caller alleged the woman for being involved in money laundering activities and she was provided with a link to a website to key in her personal details and internet banking credentials, purportedly for investigation purposes.
Later, she found out that her bank account was accessed illegally and multiple unauthorised transactions were made. The woman lost $80,000.
Preliminary investigations revealed that the said website bore resemblance to the SPF website with changes made to the “E-Services” page.
The Police would like to clarify that the official SPF website is www.police.gov.sg. Members of the public are advised to take the following precautions when they receive unsolicited calls, especially from unknown parties:
a. Ignore the calls. Scammers may use Caller ID spoofing technology to mask the actual phone number and display a different number. Calls that appear to be from a local number may not actually be made from Singapore. If you receive a suspicious call from a local number, hang up, wait five minutes, then call the number back to check the validity of the request.
b. Ignore instructions to remit or transfer money. No government agency will inform you to make a payment through a telephone call, especially to a third party’s bank account.
c. Refrain from giving out personal information and bank details, whether on the website or to callers over the phone. Personal information and bank details such as internet bank account usernames and passwords, OTP codes from tokens, are useful to criminals.
e. If you have information related to such crime or if you are in doubt, please call the Police hotline at 1800-255-0000, or submit the information online atwww.police.gov.sg/iwitness. Please dial ‘999’ if you require urgent Police assistance.
