Singapore Police have warned people to be cautious of phone calls that are purportedly from its hotline number – ‘1800-255-000’ and advised them to ignore such calls.
In a Facebook post today, it said, “The Police are aware that some members of the public have been receiving missed calls from the said number on their mobile phones.”
It added, “The Police would like to inform that the number ‘1800-255-0000’ would not be reflected on the phones for all genuine calls made from the Police Hotline.”
Advising people, it said, “Members of the public are advised to ignore such calls from unknown origins, where Caller ID spoofing technology may be used to mask the actual phone number and display a different number.”
It also said, “They may submit information online at www.police.gov.sg/iwitness should they have any related information, and dial ‘999’ only if urgent police assistance is required.
Interestingly, last July, the police also took to Facebook to warn the public against returning calls from unknown numbers starting with “999”. That same month, a man was arrested for allegedly posing as a police officer to scam a woman out of SGD32,000. The following month, there was another phone scam involving the number “+65 999”.
The police again warned of phone calls from the number “+65 67471999” last December, which played an automated voice message made by persons claiming to be from the police.