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Victims have lost $6.7m in 78 reports of tech support scams since start of 2024

2024-03-15 00:00:00.0 海峡时报-新加坡原网页

SINGAPORE – Victims have lost at least $6.7 million in at least 78 reports of technical support scams since the start of 2024, the police said.

In an advisory issued on March 15, the police said that in these cases, victims would receive pop-ups on their computers claiming that their devices had been compromised.

The pop-up alerts would include contact numbers for victims to call for technical support.

When victims called these numbers, scammers impersonating Microsoft or Apple employees would claim that the victims’ devices had been compromised by hackers and used for illegal activities.

The scammers would instruct victims to access websites or download software that would grant scammers remote access to their devices.

The call would then be forwarded to another scammer posing as a law enforcement officer.

These fake officers would remotely access the victims’ computers and pretend to help them lodge a fake police report through a scam website.

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The scammers would claim that victims had to log into their Internet banking accounts in order for them to nab the hackers.

After the victims log in to their bank accounts, the scammers would use the remote access to make unauthorised transactions.

In some cases, scammers would guide victims to create cryptocurrency accounts or provide one-time passwords to authorise fraudulent transactions.

Victims would realise they had been scammed when they discovered that unauthorised transfers or deductions had been made from their bank accounts.

The police advised the public to uninstall any software that was downloaded under the scammer’s instructions, and then turn off the device to limit the illicit activities.

Apart from changing their Internet banking credentials and removing any unauthorised payees that may have been added to their bank accounts, victims should also inform their banks and the police of the incident.

The public should also perform a full anti-virus scan of their computer, and delete any malware detected.