The Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) on Thursday, 28th Jul, 2022 issue a warning to the general public on “sudden surge” in phishing scams involving individuals impersonating as IRAS sending SMSes to their potential victims. More than S$37,400 has been lost by victims this month and at least 51 victims have fallen prey since the beginning of July, authorities said on Thursday.
According to source, victims would receive unsolicited SMSes listing IRAS as the sender’s name. The scammers will instruct their targeted victims complete their tax review or inspection using an embedded link in the message.
Once they clicking on the link in the SMS, the victims would be sent to a copied Singpass home page, where they would be asked to enter their login credentials.
“Thereafter, the victims would be redirected to another spoofed webpage which looks like an IRAS website, and finally to a spoofed bank login page,” said the authorities. Victims will then receive notification from their bank that an amount has been debited from their bank account.
IRAS and the Police is working swiftly to take down phishing websites but user vigilance is crucial in our fight against evolving scams,” they added
The general public can check against the list of trusted websites at www.gov.sg/trusted-sites if they receive a link that does not end with “.gov.sg”.
They should also never disclose their personal or Internet banking details or OTPs to anyone and report any fraudulent transactions to their bank immediately.
Those with information relating to such crimes can call the police hotline at 1800-255-0000