The Judiciary Police (PJ) warned members of the public of a new kind of phishing SMS scam in a statement on Saturday, which exploit victims through fake Bank of China (BOC) SMS messages containing phishing links, telling the victims that they could redeem e-coupons by paying one pataca using their credit card, according to a statement issued by Judiciary Police (PJ) on Saturday.
The fraud requires victims to log into a purported BOC website and provide their credit card details to redeem e-coupons by only paying one pataca, the statement said.
However, once victims enter their credit card details, the fraudsters exploit the information, resulting in a financial loss, the statement said.
According to the statement, scammers make use of technical means to disguise the official number of BOC to send phishing SMS, thus mixing the real and the fake SMS in the same dialogue box, and making the public think that the fake message was sent from the official account.
The Bank of China (BOC) said in a statement on Friday that it is not affiliated with the bogus SMS and members of the public should not respond to, open or provide personal information to any link posted in the SMS from any source, stressing that BOC will not request customers to log onto its website to conduct transactions or provide any sensitive personal or credit card information through SMS or email hyperlinks.
BOC said its customers can call the BOC Customer Service Hotline on 8889 5566 if they have any enquiries, the statement said.
PJ warns residents of ‘logistics firm’ phishing scams
In addition, the Judiciary Police (PJ) said they a separate statement on Friday that it has received reports from a number of residents that they have received a phishing SMS sent by a logistics company called ‘Cai Niao’ which falsely claimed that the user’s delivery address was incomplete and required users to click on the link attached to the SMS to re-enter it.
After clicking on the link, the user is redirected to a phishing website which asks for the user’s name, shipping address and other personal information, and then asks for credit card information, including the card number, expiry date, name of the cardholder, and a security code, on the pretext of paying a service fee for redelivery, the statement said.
After stealing the information, the fraudsters use it to make large unauthorised transactions, the statement said.
Suspected fraud should immediately be reported to the Judiciary Police’s Anti-Fraud Enquiry hotline on 8800 7777 or the crime report hotline 993 for assistance, the statement said.
This poster provided by the Judiciary Police (PJ) on Saturday warns members of the public of the “BOC SMS scam”.
This poster provided by the Judiciary Police (PJ) on Friday warns members of the public of the logistics company “Cai Niao SMS scam”.
