The Police would like to alert the public to a new variant of scam where victims were cheated into creating e-wallets on fake websites when they posted their gaming accounts for sale on social media platforms.
In these cases, the scammers expressed interest in purchasing the victims’ gaming account and would instruct the victims to access links to fake websites (e.g. baowushouyou.com, bianjieshouyou.com, 85shouyou.com, xinyushouyou.com, etc) to create e-wallets to receive payment. During the account application process, victims would come across a “Terms and Conditions” page, indicating that a fee would be incurred if there were errors in their account application form. After setting up their e-wallet, victims would receive WhatsApp calls or messages from numbers typically beginning with “+6011”. The caller, who were typically conversed in Mandarin, would claim to be a customer service officer from the e-wallet companies and would inform the victims that their e-wallet account had been frozen due to errors in their account application. Victims were then instructed to make a fund transfer to bank accounts provided in order to unfreeze their e-wallet accounts to withdraw the funds. Victims were misled to believe that they had indeed made a mistake in their account application and thus complied with the instructions to make payment to individual bank accounts to unfreeze their accounts. In some cases, victims were told to transfer more money as the amount transferred were incorrect. Victims would realise that they had fallen prey to a scam when they are not able to withdraw the funds from the e-wallet and the buyer became uncontactable.
Members of the public are should be wary of the following red flags when encountering such situations:
- Dubious websites claiming to provide e-wallet services;
- Request for fund transfer to bank accounts belonging to someone you had not met before.
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 call ‘999’ if you require urgent Police assistance.
For more information on scams, members of the public can visit www.scamalert.sg or call the Anti-Scam hotline at 1800-722-6688. Join the ‘Spot the Signs. Stop the Crimes’ campaign at www.scamalert.sg/fight by signing up as an advocate to receive up-to-date messages and share them with your family and friends. Together, we can help stop scams and prevent our loved ones from becoming the next victim.
Annex A
SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE
28 September 2021 @ 3:00 PM