In a news release on Nov. 25, the Singapore Police Force warned of a new variant of scam targeting bank customers.

New scam targetting bank accounts

According to the police, victims would receive an SMS message claiming their ATM card had been blocked, deactivated, or that their bank account had been locked.

The SMS message also instructed victims to call a specified number to reactivate their ATM card or bank account.

During the call, the scammers would pretend to be bank staff, and ask for victims’ personal particulars, internet banking details and One-Time Password (OTP).

The victims would subsequently discover that unauthorised transactions were made from their bank accounts.

How are some examples of the scam SMS message:

12 police reports made in November 2019

The police added that they have received 12 reports of such scam that targets bank accounts since November 2019.

The losses from these 12 reports totalled up to at least S$65,000.

The police also advised members of the public to adopt the following crime prevention measures:

• Beware of unsolicited messages or calls from persons impersonating as staff from banks.  Scammers may use Caller ID spoofing technology to mask their actual phone number and display the bank’s number.
• Do not disclose your internet banking details such as account username, Personal Identification Number (PIN) or One-Time Password (OTP) to anyone through phone, email or SMS.
• Do not respond to digital token authentication requests via phone calls if you did not initiate any internet banking transaction. Do not authorise any suspicious authentication request.
• If you receive a suspicious call purportedly from your bank, hang up and call the hotline published on the bank’s website to verify the authenticity of the request. Do not call the number provided by the caller.

If you wish to provide any information related to such scams, you can call the hotline at 1800-255-0000, or submit it online at www.police.gov.sg/iwitness. For urgent police assistance, you can call ‘999’.

The police also suggest those who wish to seek scam-related advice to call the anti-scam helpline at 1800-722-6688 or go to www.scamalert.sg for more information.

Top photo collage from SPF