Woman, 60, loses S$80,000 in scam on fake police phishing website

SINGAPORE – A 60-year-old woman has fallen prey to a fake Singapore Police Force (SPF) website phishing for personal details.

On Monday (Nov 13), the police received a report from the woman who said that S$80,000 had been transferred from her bank accounts without her knowledge.

The victim reported that she had earlier received a call from someone claiming to be a police officer who told her that her bank accounts had been used for money laundering purposes. The scammers then asked for her personal information and warned her not to share details of the investigations with others.

She then received a call from another person who directed her to a webpage resembling the SPF’s website, and instructed to key in her bank account details and passwords.

Later, the victim found out that a huge sum of money had been transferred from her bank accounts without her consent.

In a news release on Wednesday, the police warned members of the public to be aware of the fake website. The official SPF website is www.police.gov.sg. More specifically, the fake website leads victims to a “Bank Encryption” page — an additional tab that the real website does not have — where the scammers would ask victims to key in their bank details.

The SPF added that members of the public should take precautions when they receive unsolicited calls, especially from unknown parties, and advise ignoring the calls. “Scammers may use Caller ID spoofing technology to mask the actual phone number and display a different number. Calls that appear to be from a local number may not actually be made from Singapore,” the police said. “If you receive a suspicious call from a local number, hang up, wait five minutes, then call the number back to check the validity of the request.”

The SPF also noted that “no government agency will inform you to make a payment through a telephone call, especially to a third party’s bank account”.

As such, members of the public should refrain from giving out personal information and bank details, whether on the website or to callers over the phone. Personal information and bank details such as internet bank account usernames and passwords, OTP codes from tokens, are useful to criminals, the SPF added.

The police also urged the public to alert the force if they knew of such crimes, or are in doubt. They can call the police hotline at 1800-255-0000, or submit the information online at www.police.gov.sg/iwitness.