Anti-SMS spoofing: What it is and why there is no mandate for it yet in Singapore

The SMS sender name "OCBC" was spoofed by scammers, who lured victims to click on fraudulent links to access a fake banking website. PHOTO: ST FILE
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SINGAPORE - Victims of a massive bank scam rampant last month were fooled because fake SMS messages appeared in the same SMS thread as genuine ones sent previously by the bank for one-time passwords (OTPs) and transaction alerts.

It turns out the SMS sender name "OCBC" was spoofed by scammers, who lured victims to click on fraudulent links to access a fake banking website. Nearly 470 customers lost at least $8.5 million, making it one of the largest scams to date involving a single bank.

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