You are a sincere person who enjoys helping others. But many lawbreakers may take advantage of your kindness. Online scams can be carried out in a myriad of ways. To protect yourself, you must stay vigilant and visit the IFEC website to learn how to avoid scams!
Don’t fall prey to online scams! If you suspect that you have become a victim, call the Police’s Anti-Deception Coordination Centre hotline 18222 for help.
You are clear-headed and have some knowledge of scam prevention, but not enough to deal with the many tricks of fraudsters. Worry not! You have the potential to do better. Stay vigilant and visit the IFEC website to learn more on scam prevention. You too can become an anti-scam expert!
Don’t fall prey to online scams! If you suspect that you have become a victim, call the Police’s Anti-Deception Coordination Centre hotline 18222 for help.
Congratulations! You have answered all the questions correctly! That proves you are cautious, perceptive, and have a good grasp and understanding of scam prevention. But fraudsters have a myriad of tricks, so besides staying vigilant, you should also check out the IFEC website for updates on scam prevention.
Don’t fall prey to online scams! If you suspect that you have become a victim, call the Police’s Anti-Deception Coordination Centre hotline 18222 for help.
Scammers usually disguise themselves as attractive and highly educated professionals, and post everyday and work photos on social media to make their profiles look authentic. Scammers will send connection requests to potential victims, become friendly, and deceive them with sweet talks before coming up with all sorts of excuses to con them out of money, including claimed joint investments, insider stock tips, or in need of money to run a business or to pay for medical expenses etc.
Scammers will send bogus emails that look like they are from legitimate financial institutions to trick recipients into disclosing credit card or bank account numbers and passwords. They will make up emails and websites with domain names similar or even identical to those of legitimate financial institutions. Apart from banks, scammers will also send out bogus emails in the name of government departments, telecoms, couriers, etc. If you are in any doubt, simply do not click on the hyperlink nor open any attachments. Call the concerned institutions to verify the email’s authenticity.Scammers may illegally obtain social media personal account information, including login information and passwords, and use this stolen identity to deceive the victim’s friends and relatives, requesting for loans, points card purchases etc. Always call up the person to check if the request is genuine.
Scammers often operate ‘ramp and dump’ schemes through stock trading chat groups. They will first recommend popular stocks to build up their credibility, and once enough trust is garnered, they will start giving so-called insider tips and recommend stocks that can be easily manipulated. Fraudsters will use different tactics to con potential victims, such as threatening to kick them out of the group, or befriending them with sweet talk. Other group members, culprits of the scammer, will also act in favour of the scam, making it all the more easier to defraud the victims. Scammers will also request investors to provide proof of their stock trading transactions, such as screenshots, which will then be forwarded to the mastermind behind the scheme to earn commission. Finally, the group will dump the stocks, plummeting the stock price over a short period of time, and investors who bought the stock at inflated prices will bear significant losses.Scammers have many tricks up their sleeves to draw investors into joining their stock trading chat groups, e.g. impersonating financial experts or celebrities to set up investment classes, leaving comments in different social media posts or videos of financial experts, or participating in discussions on different online forums. Once investors join the chat group, scammers will gradually deceive and con them out of their money, in similar fashion as described in the last question.
Got itScammers usually attract buyers with lower-than-market prices or special limited-time offers. They typically refuse cash on delivery and require buyers to deposit money into a designated account. After the money is transferred, the buyer will not receive the goods and the seller will simply disappear. It’s important to always conduct a fact check on the seller before making any purchases.The pandemic has left many desperate for jobs, as they have been put out of work or are forced to take unpaid leave. Scammers may take advantage of the situation to post job recruitment ads (e.g. via click farms) on social media. Typically, there is a click farm website in place to lure job-seekers; then the scammers will explain how to create fake orders to obtain commission. Victims are then asked to set up an account and put money in it to generate fake orders. Subsequently, after the money is transferred, the scammer will no longer be contactable.Banks and institutions supporting FPS will usually notify users via SMS when money is transferred via FPS. However, scammers would take advantage of this arrangement to deceive victims by first sending a seemingly genuine SMS notification of a successful money transfer; then they will contact the victim via WhatsApp, claiming that they have transferred the amount into his/her account by mistake, while providing the victim’s abbreviated bank account name and forging a transfer record, to mislead the victim into ‘returning’ the money.
