The Judiciary Police (PJ) urged the public yesterday to be wary of their personal information on social media platforms being stolen.
According to a PJ statement, the Judiciary Police have received reports from several members of the public that criminals had stolen their photos and opened social media accounts in their names on various platforms, after which the criminals constantly contacted “friends” on the account to obtain their telephone numbers or personal information.
The statement underlined that the Judiciary Police believe that the telephone numbers or personal information that the scammers obtained could be used to commit various kinds of fraud crimes.
The Judiciary Police urged all those who suspect that their personal information has been stolen and used to open accounts on social media platforms to report the incident to the respective platforms through official channels as soon as possible, adding that after verifying the information, the purported accounts will be suspended.
The statement stressed that the internet is a virtual world where anyone can create his or her identity. Therefore, the Judiciary Police urged the public receiving an online message from a “relative” to verify the authenticity of that message by calling their relative directly, so as to avoid any financial losses.
In order to protect their personal information and improve social media account security, the Judiciary Police also urged the public not to reveal their personal information and those of their friends or relatives on social media platforms, while enabling double security authentication for their social media accounts.
If fraud or other kinds of crimes are suspected, members of the public should call the Judiciary Police Anti-scam Hotline 8800 7777 or the Crime Report Hotline 993, according to the statement.
This poster provided by the Judiciary Police (PJ) yesterday warns the public to be wary of their personal information on social media platforms being stolen by criminals.
