Police Warned that Phishing Text Messages are Used to Target the Bank Customers

As per a statement by the Singapore Police on 2 October, 2018, a new phishing scam is on the rise which sends fake messages to bank customers. Bank customers should be careful from messages that ask them to provide details for unlocking their bank account. Several reports of this kind of a phishing attack targeting the bank customers are being reported to the Police in between 27 September to 30 September, the statement said.

Phishing is a fraudulent attempt to get secured and sensitive information of a person like the usernames, credit card details, passwords, and so on, by disguising as trustworthy entity in electronic communication, often for the malicious reasons. The phishing attacks are largely carried out by instant messaging or email spoofing. The attack tricks the users by redirecting to a fake website, compelling them to enter their personal information there. The major feature of this type of attack is the fake site, which is so much similar to the original version that the victim often fails to make out the difference.

The similar thing happened to the bank customers here as well, who were completely deceived by the phishing attack, and ended up providing the internet banking details onto the phishing website by responding to the text message. The message pretended that it is sent from the bank, so that the bank customers fill up the details for unlocking their bank accounts. As soon as the customers filled up the internet banking details onto the phishing website, a new payee was added to bank accounts of the customers, and soon after, the hackers started doing unauthorized transactions from their accounts.

The Singapore Police issued a statement following these reports of phishing attack, advising the people to report any suspicious transactions immediately to their bank. They also asked people to take added precautions like not to give away their account information to anybody, and confirming with the bank first in case of receipt of any such email or message.

The Singapore Police also asked the public to check for the secured websites where the addresses begin with "https" instead of the "http".

Such scams should be reported to Singapore Police at the Helpline number 1800-255-0000, or can be reported online at www.police.gov.sg/iwitness. For more information on the scams, people can call on anti-scam helpline number 1800-722-6688 of the Singapore police or visit at www.scamalert.sg.

» SPAMfighter News - 10/9/2018