How Malware takes remote control of your HP after you download 3rd party apps
Update 27 Sep 2023: Spate of Online Scams
Ms Jacqueline Khoo, 58, lost $44,487 from two credit card accounts and three bank savings accounts from POSB in a few hours after she clicked on a link to download a third-party app, following which scammers then increased her credit limits and siphoned out her money. Ms Khoo had chanced upon a Facebook advertisement for grouper fillets from a seafood supplier called “Fresh Market TGS” on Aug 25.
She was attracted by a deal that offered $10 grouper fillet with free shipping and contacted the seller on Facebook. “Although I never bought anything from Facebook before, I had previously bought fish and pork from Shopee and Qoo10. I was not suspicious of the ad and it never occurred to me that this was a scam,” she told The Straits Times.
财叔投资到身上长满蜘蛛网了😥 Did Uncle Cai invest in spider webs? Why are they all over him?
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How to spot an investment scam
Find out how you can spot an investment scam and what you can do to avoid falling prey to one. Key takeaways:
- All investments carry risks. Be wary of opportunities that offer high returns at little or no risk.
- Don't take everything at face value, or rush into committing your money.
- Always ask, check and confirm before you invest.
Scammers use increasingly sophisticated and effective tactics to get you to part with your money. Even though some investment scams may look like a real deal, there are some red flags you can spot to help you steer clear of them. All investments carry risk. The greater the promised investment returns, the higher the risk. Be wary when you encounter an investment opportunity that claims to guarantee or protect your capital while promising high returns. Many investment scams offer such lucrative promises in order to lure investors in.
It is important to check how the investment scheme can generate such high profits with low or no risk. Benchmark the returns - find out what other investments offer the same returns and see what the risks are like. It is unlikely that the investment you are being offered can provide the same returns without the same risks at least. Pressure tactics:
- "Limited time only! Invest before it sells out!"
- "Special rates for first 50 investors. Don't miss out on this golden opportunity!"
- "More than 2,000 people have invested - what are you waiting for?"
- "Invest today and get extra 10% credit with many other benefits."
Dealing with scourge of online scams
Victims received unsolicited SMSes purporting to be from the bank, claiming there were issues with their banking accounts & they had to click on a link given in the SMS to resolve the issue. PHOTO: SPORE POLICE FORCE
Scams are nothing new. If anything, they are like a mutating virus which evolves constantly, updating its technique every time the devious methods of a previous attack are uncovered, revealed publicly and dealt with.
Sophistication marks the attack on OCBC customers. It is apparent that scammers have access to advanced software that enables them to spoof telecommunications services and send SMSes that appear in the same threads used by real organisations. Even if victims do not provide their one-time passwords, they fall prey when they enter other bank details on fraudulent sites. In the circumstances, customers are entitled to ask whether Internet banking remains as safe as it is claimed to be. It is one thing for banks to say that their security systems have not been compromised, but another when unsuspecting customers find themselves duped of their money, which sometimes cannot be recovered.
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Phishing and other SMS scams – shouldn’t banks bear the cost?
Instead, the SMSes carried links to a fraudulent website requesting for banking information and passwords to resolve these “issues”. Unsuspecting customers would be asked to key in sensitive bank account login information like their username, PIN and One-Time Password (OTP).
Using this information, the scammers could then transfer monies out of the affected customers’ accounts and carry out other transactions. The scammers would reroute received monies through various, often overseas accounts, making it difficult to track their movement and even harder to recover the cash.
OCBC phishing scam underscores trade-off between convenience and security, with bank customers at risk
Bank customers will generally be held liable for losses suffered in a banking scam only where they engage in gross negligence, experts said
As banks move towards digital banking, the recent phishing scam that affected hundreds of OCBC customers highlighted the trade-off between convenience and banking security, with bank customers at risk of bearing the entire financial cost of such modern day bank robberies, experts said.
After all, a scam in which the customer willingly, albeit unknowingly, gave up his bank account information to a cleverly disguised fake website is not technically a breach of the bank's cybersecurity infrastructure.
Mr Bryan Tan, a partner at law firm Pinsent Masons, told TODAY: "The current position is that the loss lies where it falls. If the money came out from your side, and you allowed (scammers) to authorise the transaction, the bank can defend themselves by saying they do not have a clue that the user isn't you." However, an ongoing review by the authorities on the responsibilities and liabilities of consumers and financial institutions for fraudulent payment transactions, announced last year, may give hope to those who practise good digital health.
Caution: OCBC customers lose $140k in 10 days as scams spike by 8 times
The bank is working with the Singapore Police Force's Anti-Scam Centre to try and help the affected customers recover their lost funds.The Straits Times/Chong Jun Liang
It said: "For the month of December so far, OCBC Bank has detected and initiated the takedown of 45 phishing websites, about eight times more than the average takedown requests every month." The bank said of the scams: "Members of the public have received unsolicited SMSes purportedly from the bank claiming there are issues with their bank accounts or credit cards. "The SMSes contain a link to a fraudulent website disguised as a legitimate bank website requesting banking information and passwords."
OCBC said it would never send customers an SMS to inform them of an account closure or that they have been locked out of their accounts temporarily. It added that it would not send an SMS to customers with a link to reactivate their accounts as well. "These are always communicated via physical letters to prevent online fraud."
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Top 10 Scams in Singapore - How You can Avoid being Scammed
Scams have been increasing of late. Here’s how to stay safe
Ever received emails from “royals” seeking help to transfer money out of their country in exchange for a percentage of the loot? Or phone calls informing that you’ve won a seven-figure overseas lottery and the only way to receive the payout is by providing your banking details? These are just some examples of classic scams that have been around since mobile technology became a part of our everyday life.
Scammers, though, have been evolving in recent years, becoming sophisticated cons who not only target individuals but businesses and organisations as well. The first half of 2020 saw the number of scams in Singapore jump by 140 per cent compared to 2019. More troublingly, a survey by the Home Team Behavioural Sciences Centre found that 45 per cent of scam victims reported being scammed more than once. According to the Singapore Police Force, last year saw a whopping $201 million lost to scammers, much of it online as Singaporeans turned to websites and apps to carry out activities like banking and buying groceries due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Scammers have also begun to target people working from home through robocalls, as well as seniors who are unfamiliar with the Internet.
The rising number of scam victims is testament to the increasing psychological sophistication of scammers’ tactics in crafting false proof, impersonating the victim’s close friends and using the victim’s shame about possibly falling for a scam to continue extracting money from them. Romance scammers are especially adept at identifying victims who are lonely, vulnerable and easily manipulated — a group that is increasing in size worldwide, due to COVID-19’s impact on social lives. Ensure your safety and that of others by familiarising yourself with common methods of fraud. Here are the top 10 scams in Singapore (in no particular order):
- E-COMMERCE
- SOCIAL MEDIA IMPERSONATION
- INTERNET LOVE
- CREDIT-FOR-SEX
- CHINESE OFFICIALS IMPERSONATION
- TECH SUPPORT
- BANKING-RELATED PHISHING
- NON-BANKING-RELATED PHISHING
- LOANS
- INVESTMENT
Phishing and other SMS scams - Shouldn’t banks bear the cost?
Instead, the SMSes carried links to a fraudulent website requesting for banking information and passwords to resolve these “issues”. Unsuspecting customers would be asked to key in sensitive bank account login information like their username, PIN and One-Time Password (OTP).
Using this information, the scammers could then transfer monies out of the affected customers’ accounts and carry out other transactions. The scammers would reroute received monies through various, often overseas accounts, making it difficult to track their movement and even harder to recover the cash.
What Is Pig-Butchering Scam And how to Prevent it?
“Pig-Butchering Scam” is a fraud method that induces users to participate in various types of fraudulent investments such as financial investments, gambling games, foreign exchange and other types of fake investments through online dating. Scammers call the deceived users “pigs”.
Next, scammers will follow some established scripts and define themselves as rich and handsome / beautiful, then they will induce users to fall in love and try to gain trust. We call it “pig raising” during this stage. When it reaches a certain level of emotional foundation, scammers will start to lure the other party to invest, and the final stage of fraud is “kill the pig”.
Suggestions of The Prevention of “kill the pig” Fraud:
- “Don't believe it”, you need to be cautious when making friends online. Don't trust netizens, and don't believe in investment lies such as “stable profit without loss”, “low cost and high return” and so on.
- "Don't be greedy”, refuse the temptation of gambling and high-return investment, remember that only greed will be deceived because there is no such thing as a free lunch.
- “Don't transfer”, don't transfer money to unfamiliar accounts. When transferring money to acquaintances, you must also be cautious, and communicate more with your relatives and friends and ask more to prevent falling into a “trap”.
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