Scammers are posing as staff members from the National Crime Prevention Council (NCPC) to phish for personal information in a new scam variant, the police have warned.

These scammers would make unsolicited phone calls to members of the public, some of whom were told that their identities had been stolen and used to apply for credit cards, or to register phone numbers that were allegedly involved in criminal activities.

The police said that in one case, the scammer had transferred the call to another "officer" from NCPC, who talked to the victim via WhatsApp.

The scammer sent fake official documents to the victim to enhance his credibility. The victim was then instructed to transfer money into a "safety account" as part of police investigations.

The victim only realised he had fallen for a scam after telling his family member about the alleged investigations, prompting the family to verify directly with the police.

Senior Assistant Commissioner Devrajan Bala, director of the police's Scam Public Education Office and executive director of NPCP, said they had received information about this scam variant from the ScamShield Helpline.

"I would like to assure the public that NCPC staff will never ask you to transfer money or disclose your bank login details," he said, adding that NCPC is a non-profit organisation and does not possess any investigative powers.

Scammers also impersonating Citibank staff

In a separate joint advisory with Citibank, the police said there has been a recent increase in phishing scams involving the impersonation of the bank's staff.

At least nine cases have been reported since June 27, with losses of at least $153,000.

Victims of this scam variant would receive calls from unknown caller IDs or private numbers from a "staff" from Citibank's Fraud Department, who would provide the victims' name, recent credit card transaction history and credit card information.

Pretending to assist in urgently reversing fraudulent or suspicious transactions, the scammer would then ask victims to disclose the bank's authorisation OTPs which have been sent to them via SMS.

These would be used to make unauthorised transaction in their Citibank accounts and in some cases, used to take over the victims' internet banking accounts.

Victims would only realise that they had been conned when they discovered unauthorised transactions, typically in foreign currencies such as British Pound Sterling, being made on their cards.

The police and Citibank urged members of the public to never provide bank account details or OTP to any unknown persons, and to carefully read OTP notifications and report unauthorised transactions to the bank.

The public are also advised to take precautions to avoid falling for scams by using the ACT (Add, Check, Tell) framework, which involves adding the ScamShield app and setting security features.

The public can also use the ScamShield app or website to check the legitimacy of suspicious messages, phone numbers and website links.

[[nid:720323]]

lim.kewei@asiaone.com