Beware of e-mails from scammers claiming to be from CAAS asking for quotations for goods

Scammers use hacked or spoofed e-mail accounts and ask victims to transfer funds. ST PHOTO: GIN TAY

SINGAPORE - The Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) has warned of an e-mail scam in which the crooks pretend to be representatives of the authority to hoodwink unsuspecting companies to give up information.

The authority explained on Thursday (May 14) that the scammers would send e-mails to vendors to ask for direct quotations of specific goods or services, and issue fake confirmation letters and purchase orders to them.

E-mail addresses with names or domains similar to authentic CAAS e-mails were used to trick recipients, such as tenders @ caasgov-sg.com and tenders.caas.gov @ gmail.com

CAAS added that it takes a serious view of the matter and has reported the case to the police for investigation.

The authority has also informed affected vendors to disregard and blacklist the fraudulent e-mails.

"Should anyone encounter this scam, please disregard the e-mail and, if necessary, lodge a police report," the authority advised.

The advisory comes amid a rise in cases of scammers posing as business partners or supervisors to trick employees into replying to seemingly legitimate work e-mails and cheat them of money as many companies have staff working from home and may require them to process payments remotely.

Police said on May 6 that in the first quarter this year, more than 100 reports of such scams were reported, with more than $9.2 million lost. This is a 30 per cent increase in cases reported, but a 28 per cent drop in the amount cheated over the same period in 2019.

In such scams, scammers use hacked or spoofed e-mail accounts to pretend to be business partners, suppliers or employees when asking their victims to transfer funds to a new bank account.

In the first three months of this year, scammers have cheated their victims of at least $41.3 million in total across different types of scams, from e-commerce scams and fake loan schemes, to Internet love scams.

The total amount lost grew by 27.9 per cent compared with the figure in the same period last year, the police said earlier this month.

CAAS on Thursday advised business partners and members of the public to be alert to suspicious e-mails that appear similar to official CAAS e-mails (@caas.gov.sg), and to be careful when sharing their business or personal details online.

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