Singapore Police Force (SPF) alerted people over the resurgence of the lucky draw scam, which targeted the victims by contacting them via Viber, a messaging and calling application.
In a news release the police stated that since January, the officers have received at least 13 incidents, related to this scam. They also added that the scammers have already siphoned off S$30,000 from their victims.
As per the police, the modus operandi is pretending to be the officials from Singtel or Starhub, during the introduction session with the victims, who receive news of winning some money in a lucky draw. Later, these anonymous scammers ask them to provide their personal information, credit/debit card details or bank account details before sending a claim for their prize money.
Police added that once the scammers receive the details, the victims subsequently discover unauthorized transactions which were made from their bank accounts or credit/debit cards. Police also noticed that in some cases victims were asked to purchase iTunes cards and send over the redemption code to the scammers.
"The Police would like to advise members of the public to be wary if you receive such messages or calls, especially if you have not participated in any lucky draw," SPF said in its statement.
While specifying the fact that "winning a lucky draw should not require any payments to be made to claim the prize," police asked people not to provide personal information such as credit/ debit card information and bank account details to unknown individuals. The members of the public are also advised to ignore any instructions provided by the caller/message sender to make payments by remitting money or purchasing iTunes gift cards.
If any individual has any information about such scams then they can call the police hotline number 1800-255-0000, or submit the information online at www.police.gov.sg/iwitness.
To seek scam-related advice, people can make a call to the anti-scam helpline at 1800-722-6688 or go to www.scamalert.sg.
SFP urged people to join the campaign 'Let's fight scams' at www.scamalert.sg/fight by signing up as an advocate to receive up-to-date messages and share them with their family and friends.
