Four teens among 11 suspects nabbed in two-week islandwide anti-scam operations
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The 11 suspects were nabbed following islandwide anti-scam operations from Sept 11 to 22.
PHOTO: SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE
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SINGAPORE - Four teenagers were among 11 people arrested for their alleged involvement in a spate of banking-related malware scams, the police said on Saturday.
The teenagers, three male and one female, are aged between 16 and 19. The other seven suspects, six men and one woman, are aged between 20 and 57.
They were nabbed following islandwide anti-scam operations by the Commercial Affairs Department and Police Intelligence Department from Sept 11 to 22.
Another five men and a woman, aged between 21 and 41, are assisting with investigations.
The police said 10 people, including the four teenagers, had allegedly facilitated the scam cases by relinquishing their bank accounts, Internet banking credentials and Singpass credentials for monetary gains. One of the suspects, a 28-year-old, is believed to have withdrawn money from his bank account and handed the money to an unknown person, the police added.
Since January, the police have received an increasing number of reports of unauthorised bank transactions made after victims’ mobile devices were compromised by malware – even when the victims did not share their Internet banking credentials, one-time passwords or Singpass credentials to anyone.
From January to June, 22,339 scam cases were reported,
The victims responded to advertisements on social media platforms like Facebook, and were duped into downloading an Android Package Kit from unofficial app stores, which led to malware being installed on their mobile devices. Subsequently, the scammers convinced the victims via phone calls or text messages to turn on accessibility services on their Android phones, which weakened the phones’ security and allowed scammers to take full control of the victims’ phones.
Scammers could then take note of every keystroke, steal banking credentials stored on the phones, remotely log in and access victims’ banking apps, add money mules as payees, raise payment limits and transfer money to money mules.
The scammers could also delete SMSes and e-mail notifications related to these bank transfers to cover their tracks.
Earlier this month, a woman who wanted to buy mooncakes online lost $76,000 after scammers took control of her phone through a third-party app lost over $44,000 after scammers took control of her phone
The police have advised the public against downloading apps from third-party websites or unknown sources, scanning unknown QR codes, or clicking on suspicious links, as these could contain malware. The public should download apps only from official app stores and be wary of requests for Singpass and banking credentials or money transfers. The public can turn on security settings that disallow installation of apps from unknown sources.
People should reject attractive money-making opportunities that involve the use of their Singpass accounts or bank accounts for illegal activities, they added.
For more information on scams, the public can visit www.scamalert.sg www.police.gov.sg/iwitness
