Phishing messages purportedly from Banks
Over the weekend or rather the year-end, one of the leading banks in Singapore had issued advises to its customers on phishing emails and SMS messages.
Apparently as can be seen from the link below, it is quite a serious incident especially in December 2021.
https://www.ocbc.com/group/media/release/2021/smishingsurge
As reported, and I quote --
"Over the Christmas weekend (24-26 December), there were 186 customers affected, with about $2.7 million lost on these three days alone."
Just over 3 days, $2.7 million lost due to scam and involving 186 customers?
What is happening?
Was it due to COVID-19 pandemic which was driving everybody to the brink of insanity?
Or it was making people more desperate due to loss of income and depleting savings?
It happened very often in Singapore, SMSes and emails which are mostly unsolicited.
Besides the phone calls supposedly from government departments or financial institutions, nowadays scammers are using SMSes and emails to scam unsuspecting victims.
How do they do it?
Usually in the SMSes and emails, they will provide a link to tell recipients to click on the links and provide the necessary details.
The moment you click on the link, the phishing malware will be uploaded into your devices and all your particulars will be extracted by the scammers.
The one thing which i find puzzling is the banks and the relevant authorities , other than advising people be more alerts and do not click on the links , they have not done anything proactive to take the culprits to courts.
And the Telcos do not seem to bother to take any action, well, I may be wrong, but the impression I have so far is Telcos have not done enough to flush out the scammers.
I was told they would not be able to do so, I wonder why.
If a Human Resource Recruitment Agencies can use a program to screen through the thousand resumes submitted by job applicants, and the software they use are targeting keywords to filter the resumes submitted,
Why can't the telcos use the same technology to flush out the SMSes sent to unsuspecting victims?
Or is it because they are making good money in the SMSes sent, if in one day , 100,000 SMSes are sent, and each SMSes cost $.0.30 , that is $30,000 per day for the telcos!!!.
So at the end of the day, it is upto every individual to take care of himself.
Recent Comments
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Yes, phishing scams are rampant today. They often disguise themselves as large companies to fool the unsuspecting consumers. Best not to respond to any message outside official channels.
Scammers are taking advantage of people who are in a vulnerable position during a time like this, friend. I want to blame our government for not doing enough to stop this.
But at the same time, individuals from all walks of life are to be blamed for their actions as well.
If a person is a victim once, there is no reason for him/her to be a victim twice. He/she should know the game by now. It will continue as long people react to the message. The best thing to do is to always delete them.
Some scammers might use companies that people are doing business with or are familiar with. The best thing to do is to call the companies. Never use the link or phone numbers provided by the scammers. This is where they get you. Thanks for sharing this. All the best!
yes, i agreed the government could have done more than just giving warnings to people.
And the banks too, they could have done more instead of just saying once the money is transferred, very difficult to recover, i just can not believe they don't know where the money were transferred to.
the IT in the banks need to buck up and more proactive in tackling this issue.
best regards
Chee Shi
Good point, friend. The banks are the ones who are making the transactions. For them to not know where the money is going, is just dumb on their part. Accountability should be enforced.
All the best!