The Immigration & Checkpoints Authority has issued a warning to the public to be wary of scam calls posing as its officers.

"The Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) is aware that members of the public have received calls from some offices of our checkpoints recently. On some occasions, the unknown caller, who may or may not use ICA’s numbers to call, would claim to be an ICA officer and ask the recipients to provide their personal information (e.g. bank account or passport numbers) and/or transfer money, in relation to cases or investigations which they were allegedly involved in.

The ICA would like to clarify that these calls were not made by our officers. ICA does not call members of the public to transfer money."

So, if you get a call from someone claiming to be an ICA officer, don't panic. Just ignore the calls, ignore their instructions, and don't give them any money.

Report scam calls

If you do get one of these calls, report them to the police. But don't clog up the 999 number if it's not an emergency.

You can call these following numbers instead:

• 1800-255 0000 (Police hotline, also the witness website)
• 1800-722-6688 (Anti scam helpline, with advice available on a website)

However, the ICA did not specify how exactly these con men gained access to ICA's numbers.

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How the scam works

The scammers could be using Caller ID spoofing services in order to make it seem like they're using a genuine ICA number.

The scammers log into a third party spoofing service provider website, and enter the number they wish to appear on your device.

The spoofing service then calls the intended victim's number, and bridges the calls together along with the spoofed Caller ID information. The victim sees the fake Caller ID information when they answer, and are connected to the scammer.

Top image from Pixabay

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