Members of the public should take caution if they receive any phone calls from people claiming to be from the police department.
In a Facebook post on Saturday (6 July), the police stated that a member of the public had received a phone call from someone claiming to be from the Criminal Investigation Department of the Singapore Police Force.
According to the police, he was asked to show the front and back of his Automated Teller Machine (ATM) card to the scammer through a video call as part of a new regulation to update his personal details. As some ATM cards are known to function as debit cards, the scammer could have been trying to obtain the debit card details.
The Police emphasised that such calls are not made by the Police, therefore, members of the public are advised to take the following precautions when they receive unsolicited calls, especially from unknown parties:
- Don’t panic – Ignore the calls and caller’s instructions. No government agency will request for transfer of money, personal details or bank account login credentials over the phone. Call a trusted friend or talk to a relative before you act. You may be overwhelmed by emotion and err in your judgment.
- Don’t believe – 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 a while, then call the number back to check the validity of the request.
- Don’t give – Do not provide your name, identification number, passport details, contact details, bank account or credit card details, and One-Time-Password (OTP). Such information are useful to criminals.
The police stated that if you wish to provide any information related to such scams, please call the Police hotline at 1800-255-0000, or submit it online at www.police.gov.sg/iwitness. If you require urgent Police assistance, please dial ‘999’.
To seek scam-related advice, you may call the National Crime Prevention Council’s anti-scam helpline at 1800-722-6688 or visit www.scamalert.sg.
The police also asked members of the public to join the ‘let’s fight scams’ campaign at www.scamalert.sg/fight by signing up as an advocate to receive up-to-date messages and share them with your family and friends.
