SINGAPORE - About 190 people have lost at least $521,000 in total to lucky draw scams in the first three months of 2024, the police said on April 15.

In this scam variant, victims are duped into providing their banking credentials or making payments to cash out prizes won from lucky draws. 

Scammers approach victims about fake lucky draws through advertisements or direct messages online, before tricking them into making payments for a guaranteed prize or more chances to win high-value prizes, such as iPhone15 and branded wallets.

The scams, which involved at least 191 victims, took place on various social media platforms, most commonly on Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, Telegram and Amazon, the police said. 

In some cases, scammers would video-call victims via WhatsApp and request the victims to share their screens by pretending that it was needed to verify payments.

The screen-sharing allows the scammers to watch the victims log into their bank accounts and see their banking credentials.

Victims would realise they have been scammed only when they fail to receive any prizes.

The police advised the public to be careful when sharing their screens during WhatsApp calls and to take precautionary measures such as installing the ScamShield app and setting up security features for their banking accounts.

They also urged people to check for signs of scams with official sources, report any scams to the social media platforms they appear on and unauthorised transactions to the banks.

Scams in Singapore hit a record high of 46,563 reported cases in 2023 – the highest number of cases since the police started tracking them in 2016.

The 2023 figure is up 46.8 per cent from the 31,728 cases in 2022, with victims losing a total of $651.8 million.

For more information on scams, visit www.scamalert.sg or call the anti-scam helpline on 1800-722-6688.