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Singapore

Beware of DBS, OCBC phishing scams: Police

Beware of DBS, OCBC phishing scams: Police

Sample of malicious SMS purportedly sent by DBS. (Image: Facebook/DBS)

SINGAPORE: Several people have been cheated into providing their personal information and credit card details on phishing websites or over the phone, after responding to online advertisements or SMSes purportedly sent out by DBS Bank and Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC). 

The victims later realised that unauthorised transactions in various foreign currencies were made to their credit cards, said the police on Thursday (Aug 30).

Malicious DBS advertisement as seen on Facebook. (Image: DBS)

In these cases, victims would either come across a Facebook advertisement or receive an SMS purportedly from one of the banks regarding an investment opportunity, the police said in advisory posted on Facebook.

Upon clicking the link provided, victims were then directed to a website that either promoted a new investment product or software.

To sign up, victims were asked to provide their personal information, credit card details and one-time password (OTP) via an online form.

Some victims were also tricked into providing the information over the phone to people impersonating employees from the bank.

The police’s advisory follows warnings by DBS and OCBC earlier this month of fraudulent SMSes appearing to originate from them.  

“These fraudulent SMSes often lead to sites which are fronts for investment scams or phishing attacks, where they will try to obtain your financial information or convince you to transfer funds to them under false pretences,” DBS said in a scam alert on Aug 3.

OCBC on Aug 24 posted a similar alert, saying that “fraudsters” had been sending out SMSes appearing to originate from the bank.

“Some of them claim that OCBC has announced new software that will make you a millionaire, while others tell you some miraculous software will let you ‘quit your job in 30 days’. These are NOT sent by OCBC Bank,” OCBC said. 

“While we work hard to help our customers succeed, we certainly don’t believe in ‘Get rich quick’ approaches,” it added.

In May, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) advised consumers to "exercise utmost caution" when dealing with emails requesting for sensitive information associated with their bank accounts, following a rise in number of "phishing attempts".

Source: CNA/aj/(gs)

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