MAS warns of phone scams impersonating regulator, bank staff
In a new scam variant, scammers would pretend to be a regulatory or bank official and tell the receiver that his or her bank account had been locked or suspended, and would offer assistance to resolve the matter, the Monetary Authority of Singapore said.
SINGAPORE — There have been reports of fraudulent messages and calls to members of the public that impersonate staff of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and request for personal or bank account information, the MAS warned on Tuesday (Feb 25).
These calls, which display an MAS contact number, may be received as regular phone calls or via Viber and WhatsApp. The MAS logo is sometimes also used as the profile picture on these messaging applications, the MAS said.
The scammers often begin the phone call by letting the receiver know that his or her bank account had been locked or suspended, and would offer assistance to resolve the matter.
The victim would then be asked to provide details of his or her bank account, internet banking user ID and password.
There are also similar deceptive schemes where scammers pretend to be staff from banks and attempt to collect the same personal information from victims, the MAS said.
The MAS noted in its statement that its officers would never ask for personal banking information or security login credentials from members of the public.
Members of the public should avoid authorising any suspicious authentication requests such as digital token authentication or one-time password requests via phone calls if no prior Internet banking transaction had been made, the MAS said.
In the event that a suspicious call is received, MAS advised members of the public to hang up and report the call to MAS at webmaster [at] mas.gov.sg. The number should also be blocked or reported as spam on the mobile application.
Any information related to such scams should be reported to the Police hotline at 1800-255-0000, or submitted online at www.police.gov.sg/iwitness.
Members of the public can also contact the anti-scam hotline at 1800-722-6688, visit www.scamalert.sg or the MoneySense website for scam and phising-related advice.
