Victims will first see a pop-up message on their computer screens indicating that their computers have been infected with a virus or their passwords and information might have been leaked. There will be a toll-free telephone number for the victims to contact “Microsoft” to resolve the issue. After making the call, the victims will connect to operators who claim to be employees from Wetechconsultants, Microsoft or Apple. The victims will be advised to download an application from a website (www.remote.me, www.anydesk.com, www.fastsupport.com) or enter commands to their computers. These steps gave the scammers’ remote access and control of the victims’ computers.
The scammers will inform the victims that they need to purchase “anti-virus software” to fix the computer and request for the victims’ personal particulars (e.g., NRIC) and credit or debit card details. The scammers will then make unauthorised transactions using the credit or debit card details. In some cases, the victims allowed the scammers to access their email accounts by providing their passwords. This could allow the opportunity for the scammers to misuse their email accounts to commit other scams.
Members of public are advised to adopt the following preventive measures:
- Ignore the pop-up messages and do not call the toll-free number provided. You may open Task Manager, select the web browser, and click on the “End Task” button to close the pop-up message.
- Do not panic and do not follow instructions to install applications or type commands into your computer
- Do not give out your personal information, credit/debit card details, bank account details, or email account details.
If you wish to provide any information, please call the Police hotline at 1800-255-0000, or submit it online at www.police.gov.sg/iwitness. If you require urgent Police assistance, please dial ‘999’.
To seek scam-related advice, you may call the anti-scam helpline at 1800-722-6688 or go to www.scamalert.sg. Help spread the word and share this advisory with your family and friends to prevent them from being the next victim of scam.
SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE
04 June 2017 @ 3:40 PM