With the recent rampant scam in the banking industries, especially towards the end of last year 2021, more people are alert to the scamming going on.
However, despite all this news about the scams in the banking industries, there are still a lot of bank customers fell into the trap of the scammers.
News report stated among those who fell victims to the scammers are professional and females.
One would have thought only elderly who are less savvy with information technology will fall prey to the scams.
the number showed otherwise, even as reported, IT engineer also one of the many victims.
The other group is the females, be it the professional, housewife or some who are emotionally disturbed. Scammers will look for those vulnerable.
What can we do to safeguard ourselves ?
to safeguard ourselves from falling victims to the scammers, and lose our lifelong savings, it is about time more people are to aware of this and take necessary steps to keep ourselves happy.
the age-old saying - do not talk to strangers, still hold true in this virtual world of advance technology.
most people seem to have forgotten this adage when come to online world, especially the young ones who like to communicate through virtual world.
We can at least do the following to safeguard ourselves.
1. Carry out due diligence on the other parties.
how many people online check on the background of the other parties they are dealing with?
when a person comes across some offers online, tendency is for the person to click on it and see the offer and like it, will purchase, without checking whether it is real or not.
Before you come to conclusion whether to deal with the person, do the following:
a. we should at least check the legitimacy of the website.
b. Read comments and review about the company,
c. Search online to see whether there is any about the person or company.
d. check whether the person whom you are supposed to deal with have any other social media accounts.
e. If the does, what did the posts and share in his account,
f. Carry out a check on anti scam website and see whether the name is listed in it or not.
2. Insist on a physical meeting.
One of the best way is to have a physical meeting, if the person on the other side refused to do so, then we can more or less about dealing with him.
well, the may say under the current circumstance, it is quite difficult to travel and meet up, then we can suggest a video call since the technology enable this virtual meeting a possibility.
3. Do not commit any decision instantly.
people tend to make instant decision nowadays, and scammers are taking full advantage of this.
nowadays people are impatient, especially when dealing with transactions online, they want it fast, so fast that until they do not bother to check clearly and carefully what they are clicking on.
4. Check for telltale sign that it is a fake website.
a lot of people when they receive a message, email or notices, they do not bother to check carefully to look for telltale sign of fake messages.
most people will just look at the headline and the sender name, and believe it is from the legitimate sender.
In Singapore, there are a lot of senders who like to use the following corporation or website names to send malware and phishing link.
1. DBS.
2. DHL.
3. LinkedIn.
5. Microsoft.com
6. MOH
7. POSB
these are just some example, if you check the domain names of the websites, it is not the original organization domain name, the email domain also look very different.
Are the measures announced by Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) effective?
MAS has since the phishing SMSes scam in December 2021, announced a few measures to further improve and strengthen the internet banking industry security.
1. Removing of clickable links in SMSes sent to customers.
last time banks used to send SMSes to customers with clickable links, this as explained by banks, it is to enable the customers to click on the link and get access to the website faster.
Scammers took advantage of this, especially when the banks used the shorten form of domain link, so it is quite difficult to check on the real domain name of the banks.
2. Delay the changes and updating of information of customers.
to make life easy for customers, banks used to say customers could now update their information online without making a trip to the branch.
with this scammer, after phishing the login particulars of the customers, happily do the changes and take control of the operation of the accounts of the customers.
now MAS want any changes and updating of personal particular such as phone number, login password and so on, be processed and be effective only after 12 hours.
you can read more about that in the following two links:
a. Singapore Government Media Statement.
b. Monetary Authority of Singapore announcement
This topic is one that really stands out for me, I cover similar content on my website and can really relate to providing valuable information to our audience that can prevent them from falling for the scammers tactics. These are becoming increasingly more advanced to the point where even some skilled professionals struggle to see the signs that all is not as it seems.
Keep shining a light on any new trends that the scammers are using and together we can make the internet a much safer place for all.
Yes, I agreed that we had to do our shares to warn the public of the scams going on , especially since the end of last year, it seems to get more rampant and daring by the scammers.
The problem is nowadays people do not read the printed media, and printed medias always have good write up the scams.
Hi, thanks for the heads up. It´s always good to know about the scams that exist these days. I´m female and an entrepreneur, and luckily I was never scammed. It was curious to read about your statistics. I have to admit that I do take risks, as I do not always check a person´s or company´s background before I meet up or access a link. On the other hand, I am careful not to click on the links I receive on social media.
As much as I appreciate all the security measures, I have to admit it is becoming tough to keep up with the constant changing and updating of passwords to access digital products and services.
Yes, people nowadays are always in a hurry, so when they see emails or messages come in, without reading it in details or do the necessary check, just read the headline and glance through the message and click on the link in the message, then realize they have clicked on some malicious link and the rest is history.