The Police have arrested four men, aged between 27 and 37, and a 34-year-old woman for their suspected involvement in a WhatsApp account takeover scam syndicate.
In an operation conducted between 29 November 2021 and 30 November 2021, police officers from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) have arrested the five persons. During the operation, an array of mobile phones, laptop, tablets, bank cards, substances believed to be controlled drugs and drug-related paraphernalia were seized. Among the five persons arrested, three men, aged between 27 and 31, were also arrested for suspected drug-related offences.
Of the five persons arrested, a 37-year-old man was charged on 1 December 2021 with unauthorised access to computer material under Section 3(1) of the Computer Misuse Act and remanded for further investigations. Investigations against the other four suspects are ongoing.
Under the Computer Misuse Act, first-time offenders who knowingly cause a computer to perform any function for the purpose of securing access without authority to any program or data held in any computer shall be liable on conviction to imprisonment of up to two years, a fine of up to $5,000, or both. Re-offenders are liable on conviction to imprisonment of up to three years, a fine of up to $10,000, or both.
The Police takes a stern view against such activities and will continue to take tough enforcement action against those who flout the law. Members of the public are also advised to adopt the following crime prevention measures to protect their WhatsApp accounts from being compromised:
- Never share your WhatsApp account verification codes with anyone;
- Beware of unusual requests received over WhatsApp, even if they were sent by your WhatsApp contacts;
- Protect your WhatsApp account by enabling the ‘Two-Step Verification’ feature. This can be done by opening WhatsApp and go to ‘Settings’ > ‘Account’ > ‘Two-step verification’ > ‘Enable’; and
- Change your voicemail account’s default PIN to avoid easy access by scammers. If you have no use of the voicemail account, contact your telco service provider to deactivate the feature.
If you have information related to such crimes or if you are in doubt, please call the Police hotline at 1800-255-0000, or submit it online at www.police.gov.sg/iwitness. Please dial ‘999’ if you require urgent Police assistance.
SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE
03 December 2021 @ 1:00 PM