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Is it time to phase out SMS OTPs to stem scam scourge?
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Amid the frustration and jitters over recent scam incidents, the public has come up with ideas to thwart SMS scams.
ST PHOTO: SEAH KWANG PENG
Kenny Chee
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SINGAPORE - The recent OCBC Bank SMS scams in which nearly 470 customers lost at least $8.5 million in December last year have raised questions about how the scam scourge can be dealt with to protect consumers.
Many victims of the latest scams were fooled because the fake SMSes were grouped in the same SMS thread with genuine ones sent previously by OCBC for one-time passwords (OTPs) and transaction alerts. The SMS sender name "OCBC" was spoofed by scammers, who lured victims to click on fraudulent links to access a fake banking website.
