In a police advisory issued on Feb. 19, 2020, the Singapore Police Force (SPF) warned of a new type of scam that might be emerging on WhatsApp. They have already received 18 reports of this scam.

Scammers compromise the WhatsApp accounts

Victims have disclosed their personal details to scammers, who have compromised the WhatsApp accounts of the victims' friends.

To execute the scam, the scammers would first send out a message to the victim from their friend's compromised WhatsApp account.

The scammers would request for the victim's 6-digit verification code for their WhatsApp account.

The victim would then lose access to their WhatsApp account once the verification code is provided to the scammer.

Scammers ask victims for images of credit or debit cards & One-Time Passwords

The second part of the scam involves using the compromised WhatsApp accounts to impersonate the victims' friends and ask for personal details from contacts in the victim's account.

Under the pretence that they have won fake lucky draws on Qoo10, Shopee or Lazada, scammers ask victims for contact numbers, images of their credit or debit cards and One-Time Passwords (OTP) that they received.

Victims' learn that they have been scammed when they discover unauthorised transactions made through their accounts.

In the past, such tactics were employed by scammers via Facebook and Instagram.

Members of public are asked to not share WhatsApp verification codes

According to SPF, they are aware of 18 such cases of scammers taking over WhatsApp accounts, since Dec. 2019.

To protect yourself against such scams, members of the public are advised by SPF to take the following preventative measures:

• Be wary of unusual requests from strangers or social media contacts
• Always check the authenticity of claims of lucky draw wins through the official websites of the companies holding lucky draws
• Do not transfer money or give out personal information to anyone, such as One-Time Passwords, bank account or credit/debit card details
• Never share WhatsApp verification codes with anyone
• Beware of strange requests on WhatsApp, even if they are sent by friends (as their account might be compromised)
• Protect your WhatsApp account with the 'Two-Step Verification' feature

Helplines to report scams

Police hotline: 1800-255-0000 or www.police.gov.sg/iwitness

Urgent police assistance: 999

Anti-scam helpline: 1800-722-6688 or www.scamalert.sg

Top photo by Antoine Julien/Unsplash