Singapore Police Warns Public Against Phishing Scam Variant

The Singapore Police Force (SPF) issued a warning this Tuesday (April 23) against a recently emerged variant of phishing scam, reminding the public to beware of the new scam.

In this scam, the victim receives an image on Telegram containing a text message purportedly about the 2024 Ministry of Finance budget and also falsely claiming that the victim may be eligible to receive cash from the government.

The image was accompanied by a link directing the victim to a scam website. Under the pretext of helping to verify the victim's eligibility for government financial assistance., the website asks for the victim's name and Telegram account number.

Then scammers attempt to log into victims’ Telegram accounts.

The scammers steal Telegram accounts to send fake messages to other users in the victim's contact list, potentially adding them to unknown group chats that are supposedly investment-related.

In response to this variant of the scam, the Singapore Police Force said that the Ministry of Finance (MOF) only releases information through official channels and that any SMSes sent by MOF are only used to inform citizens of the benefits and never require people to reply, click on links, or provide any information.

_{Screenshots of fraudulent infographics. Source SPF}

_{Screenshots of fraudulent website. Source: SPF}