10 people arrested for suspected involvement in malware scams
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Six men and four women, aged between 16 and 41, were arrested for their suspected involvement in the recent spate of banking-related malware scam cases.
PHOTO: SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE
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SINGAPORE – Six men and four women, aged between 16 and 41, have been arrested for suspected involvement in a recent spate of banking-related malware scams.
Another 12 men and seven women, aged between 19 and 61, are assisting in the investigations, the police said on Saturday.
The police added that since January, they have received more reports of Android devices being exposed to malware.
This led to unauthorised transactions involving the victims’ bank accounts even though they did not give their Internet banking credentials, one-time passwords or Singpass details to anyone.
In these cases, victims responded to advertisements on social media platforms.
They were told to download an installation file to an Android application from a third-party app store to buy the item or service.
Malware is installed on the victims’ mobile device when the file is downloaded.
Scammers call or text victims to turn on accessibility services on the phone.
This weakens the device’s security, allowing scammers to record every keystroke and steal banking credentials stored in the phones.
Scammers can then log in remotely to the victims’ banking apps, add money mules as payees, raise payment limits and transfer money out.
To cover their tracks, scammers can even delete SMS and e-mail notifications of bank transfers made.
Officers from the Commercial Affairs Department, Criminal Investigation Department and Police Intelligence Department mounted islandwide operations between July 10 and 14 and arrested the 10 people.
Preliminary investigations revealed that two men and three women, aged between 18 and 41, allegedly facilitated the scams by relinquishing their bank accounts or Internet banking credentials for monetary gains.
A 39-year-old man is also believed to have received criminal proceeds amounting to more than $10,000 in his bank account.
The other three men and a woman, aged between 16 and 31, are believed to have withdrawn money from money mules’ bank accounts and handed it to unknown persons.
The offence of acquiring benefits from criminal conduct carries a jail term of up to 10 years, a fine of up to $500,000, or both.
For deceiving the banks into opening accounts that were not meant for their own use, they could be liable for the offence of cheating.
This carries a jail term of up to three years, or a fine, or both.
They could be fined up to $5,000, or jailed for up to two years, or both, for relinquishing their bank account login details.
The police urged the public not to click on suspicious links, scan unknown QR codes or download apps from third-party websites or unknown sources.
Before downloading any app, people should check the number of downloads and user reviews.
They should be wary of requests for banking credentials or money transfers and attractive offers that sound too good to be true.
To protect their devices, people should turn on security settings such as disallowing installation of apps from unknown sources.
To avoid being an accomplice in these crimes, the public should reject opportunities promising fast and easy payouts in return for others to use their Singpass or bank accounts.
For more information on scams, go to www.scamalert.sg
Anyone with information relating to such crimes should call the police hotline on 1800-255-0000, or submit it at www.police.gov.sg/iwitness
