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Is Singapore becoming Scam City?

The OCBC phishing scam seems to be just one of many types of scams.

Scam cases – two of the more ingenious scam schemes we have encountered in the last few months.

 

Scam Case 1

Scammers hack into your email and change just one small character in your counterparties’ email address. They then hijack the email thread and impersonate the other party.

The scammer will ask for payments to be made to accounts other than the ones you normally make payments to. If this happens, your spidey senses should be tingling like crazy.

For example, they change the corresponding email address from “alice@atlanticshippingcompany.com” to “alice@atlanticshipingcompany.com“.

You can hardly tell the difference.

The client came to us after the scam happened. We got in touch with the CAD, the bank and got the injunction from the High Court in record time but a lot of the US$1.7m that was transferred over was lost.

 

Scam Case 2

Scammer sends an innocent WhatsApp message wrongly to the client’s number and starts chatting. Scammer encourages clients to trade online and gives a link to set up an App on the phone of one of the world’s biggest trading companies.

All looks legit.

However, the whole App is created by scammers! It looks exactly like the real thing!

The client is asked to send monies to several different personal accounts to trade. The client does so. nearly half a million dollars went there. Was at the CAD making the report last week for the client.

The saving grace? Monies were transferred to Singapore bank accounts. Very slim possibility of recovery.

 

Conclusion

Have consulted on many more scam cases these last few months. Many times, the monies are long gone before we can do anything. Scammers are getting more sophisticated, creative, and professional. When dealing with online transfers of money, proceed with extreme care!

Please note that this article does not constitute express or implied legal advice, whether in whole or in part. If you require legal advice, please contact us at: info@silvesterlegal.com

 

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