$2.6 million lost to scammers posing as MAS officers since start of 2023
At least $2.6 million have been lost since January to scammers who pretended to be officers from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).
At least 41 victims have fallen prey to the ruse, which is a variant of the government official impersonation scam, said the police and MAS in a joint statement on Dec 21.
The fraudsters posed as bank officers to call victims to verify transactions they had allegedly made, although the transactions did not take place.
When the victims denied making them or possessing the bank cards in question, the scammers redirected them to another conman posing as an MAS officer.
The “officer” accused the victims of various crimes, such as money laundering or fraud. In some cases, they referred the victims to yet another scammer – a “police officer” – to ramp up the pressure.
They then instructed the victims to transfer money to specific bank accounts supposedly used by the authorities, or else asked for their banking credentials, all under the guise of official-sounding reasons, such as investigations.
The victims realised they had been scammed only after the fraudsters became uncontactable, or after checking with their banks or the police.
MAS and the police said their officers would never ask the public to transfer money, or request control of bank accounts or Internet banking credentials.
The authorities also said that banking credentials and credit card details should not be shared with anyone through the phone, e-mail, SMS or via messaging applications. People should not let others access their bank accounts or Singpass either.
Authentication requests should also not be authorised if transactions were not made personally, the statement said.
As a precaution, the authorities suggested that people lock up their funds – a feature DBS, OCBC and UOB introduced in November.
Money that is locked up can be withdrawn only in person as a fail-safe against fraudsters siphoning money out of bank accounts after gaining access to a user’s digital devices.
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