8 people in S'pore aged 17-33 arrested after more than S$60,000 lost in DBS SMS phishing scams

Too many scammers in Singapore.

Belmont Lay | June 10, 2022, 02:59 PM

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Eight people in Singapore, aged 17 and 33, have been arrested for their alleged involvement in DBS phishing scams, the police said on June 9.

More than 60 victims lost a total of about S$60,000.

The eight suspects, aged between 17 and 33, were arrested during an island-wide operation on June 8 and are being investigated for cheating or money laundering offences, the police said.

The police received reports of the scams between June 5 and 8.

How scam worked

Unsolicited SMSes with tags such as “SG-DBS” or “DBS-Notice” were received by victims.

The message recipients were told that their cards had been blocked due to unusual activities or that their bank accounts had been frozen due to suspicious activities.

The SMSes then directed the victims to sign in via an embedded link to verify their identity.

The link redirected the victims to a spoofed Internet banking log-in page.

Their online banking username and password, as well as bank card details were harnessed from there by the scammers.

Victims would then be asked to key in the One-Time Passwords (OTPs) they received on their mobile phones on another spoofed web page.

Victims' accounts were compromised as a result and they only found out about their funds being siphoned later.

Investigations ongoing

DBS Bank and officers from the Commercial Affairs Department collaborated to establish the "beneficiaries of the siphoned-off funds".

Arrests were then made following investigations.

The offence of cheating carries a jail term of up to 10 years and a fine.

Anyone found guilty of money laundering may be jailed for up to 10 years, fined up to S$500,000 or both.

Top photo via Singapore Police Force