The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has warned that there have been fraudulent messages and calls to members of the public that purport to be from MAS staff. These calls request personal or bank account information.
"MAS officers will never ask members of the public for personal
banking information nor security login credentials," MAS said in a statement.
According to MAS, the calls may be received as regular phone calls or via applications such as Viber or WhatsApp. Perpetrators can even use caller ID spoofing technology to mask their actual phone numbers, instead displaying a genuine MAS contact number. MAS’ logo can appear as the profile picture on Viber or WhatsApp.
The person receiving the call will typically be told that his or her bank account has been locked or suspended, and then offered assistance to resolve the matter. The victim is asked to provide details of his or her bank account, Internet banking user ID and password. Scammers may also pretend to be staff from banks.
"Anyone who receives such messages or calls should not disclose personal information including Internet banking or credit card details, bank account
username, personal identification numbers (PINs) or one-time passwords
(OTPs)," MAS added.
MAS advises the public to:
- Never disclose Internet or mobile banking details or credit card details such as bank account user ID, passwords, PINs or OTPs to anyone through phone, email or SMS/messaging applications.
- Not authorise any suspicious authentication request. For example, they should not respond to digital token authentication or OTP requests via phone calls if Internet/mobile banking transactions were not initiated.
- Be suspicious of unsolicited messages or calls purporting to be from MAS or banks.
Those who receive a suspicious call, should hang up and report the call to MAS at webmaster@mas.gov.sg. Numbers provided by the caller should not be called, and the number should be blocked or reported as spam on the mobile application.
The scams can be reported to the police at hotline 1800 255 0000, or submitted online at www.police.gov.sg/iwitness. All information will be kept strictly confidential. For urgent police assistance, dial 999.
Scam-related advice is available from the anti-scam hotline at 1800 722 6688 or, at www.scamalert.sg.
Phishing-related advice is available from the MoneySense website.
