Some scams are like cockroaches, hard to get rid.

In a Facebook post on July 9, the Singapore Police Force (SPF) warned Singaporeans against the resurgence of scams that end up taking over WhatsApp accounts and demanding ransoms for their return.

Losing access to your WhatsApp account

According to the police, the scam involves a supposed friend requesting the victim to send a six-digit verification code over a WhatsApp message.

Once the code is provided, the victim will lose access to the WhatsApp account.

Preventive measures

The police advised members of the public to refrain from sharing verification codes with anyone and be cautious of such requests even if it is from a WhatsApp contact.

If you receive such request from a friend, do call him or her to verify that it is really from the person.

However, do not verify online as the account might have been taken over by scammers.

You can take precautionary measures such as enabling the "Two-Step Verification" feature in the WhatsApp application.

Here's how you can do that:

If you got scammed...

If your WhatsApp account is compromised, you can sign into WhatsApp with your phone number and enter the verification PIN that will be sent to your phone.

This will log the scammer out of your WhatsApp account and help you recover your account.

Should you have more information about such scams, you can call the police hotline at 1800-255-0000 or report it online at www.police.gov.sg/iwitness.

You can also get scam-related advice by calling anti-scam helpline at 1800-722-6688.

Here's the full post by SPF:

https://www.facebook.com/singaporepoliceforce/posts/10158670341859408