Victims lose more than S$259,000 in courier phishing scams since Jun 24

SINGAPORE: The Singapore Police Force has warned of an increase in phishing scams impersonating courier companies, with at least 43 cases reported and losses exceeding S$259,000 (US$200,700) since Jun 24.

At least 20 reports were lodged on Jul 13 alone.

In an advisory on Wednesday (Jul 15), police noted that scammers contacted their victims through text messages from numbers with the country code +212 (Morocco), or email addresses that "appear to come from recognised couriers such as NinjaVan and J&T Express".

Victims were informed that their parcels could not be delivered due to an "invalid" address and told to update their delivery address within 24 hours through a link that closely resembled the courier's genuine URL.

The link led to a spoofed website where they were to prompted to pay a small "re-delivery fee", ranging from S$0.06 to S$1.64.

Some victims had their credit cards added to Google Pay or Apple Pay without their knowledge after entering their banking details and authorising the transactions.

Victims typically discovered they had been scammed only after noticing unauthorised transactions made to their cards or bank accounts, police said.

The police urged the public to take the following precautions to avoid falling victim to such scams:

Download the ScamShield app and add security features such as two-factor or multifactor authentication for their banks. Transaction limits should also be set up for for internet banking

Check for scam signs with official sources like the ScamShield WhatsApp bot, or call the Anti-Scam Helpline at 1800-722-6688

Tell the authorities, family and friends about scams and report fraudulent transactions immediately

Anyone with information on such scams may call the police hotline at 1800-255-0000 or submit information online at www.police.gov.sg/i-witness.