SINGAPORE – Since the start of the year, at least 149 people have fallen prey to a scam involving spoofed work e-mails, with losses amounting to at least $70.8 million.
In a statement on Saturday (May 21), the police said the scammers, using a hacked e-mail account or e-mail address, would impersonate the colleagues, business partners or suppliers of the victims.
Often times, these spoofed e-mail addresses would include subtle misspellings, or replacement letters, which might not be obvious at first glance.
Victims would get e-mails informing them that there was a change in bank account number, with a request that they make payment to other bank accounts.
Having been duped into believing that the e-mails were genuine, the victims would transfer funds to the new accounts.
In some cases, victims were instructed to purchase gift cards and provide the activation keys for their supervisors.
Victims realised they had fallen prey to a scam only when they…
