In a Facebook post, the agency said: “Singapore Customs would like to alert the public about a circulating Scam SMS. The SMS FALSELY claims to be from Singapore Customs by identifying itself as ‘S.G. Customs’. We do NOT use ‘SGCustoms’ (or any variation of this) as part of our corporate identity or on digital/social media platforms.”
Stating the nature of the scams, the SPF said they were mainly investment scams, e-commerce scams, job scams, friend impersonation scams, fake buyer scam, and internet love scams.
Modus operandi of the latest September 2024 Singtel SMS scam matches that of the past year. The June 2023 police advisory had explained: “In this scam variant, the victim would receive an unsolicited SMS prompting the victim to click on a fraudulent link to claim a reward before the expiry of his Singtel points.”
ASC and the banks used robotic process automation technology to detect potential victims of scams. These scams were related to jobs, investments, fake friend calls and e-commerce.
In this scam variant, victims encountered advertisements or posts on social media (e.g. Facebook) featuring various heavily discounted goods allegedly offered by NTUC FairPrice.
It has come to light in recent months that many, many people in Singapore have been letting scammers use their Singpass or banking credentials to prey on victims. Huge amounts of money have been lost as a result.
The new scam involves scammers gaining access to WhatsApp accounts through the use of fake “WhatsApp Web” websites.
One of the Indian convicts, a chartered accountant, set up Singapore-incorporated companies whose accounts were used for receiving scam proceeds. The other Indian convict was paid to be listed as a ‘director’ of these companies but without any due diligence responsibilities.
These developments came after weeklong operations against corporate money mules.
According to Police Spokesman SSP Nihal Thalduwa, the CID conducted simultaneous raids in these mentioned areas, leading to the seizure of 135 mobile phones and 57 laptops, reported Sri Lanka’s Daily Star newspaper.
