Singapore Police working with Meta to remove scams WhatsApp lines

SINGAPORE: The police are working with social media company Meta to terminate WhatsApp lines believed to be used in scams, as well as remove suspicious online monikers and advertisements.

Victims have fallen prey to a spate of Android malware scams in recent months, many of which involve advertisements on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, promoting products and services.

Responding on Tuesday (Oct 10) to CNA’s queries, police said that scammers are “becoming increasingly sophisticated and are constantly evolving their tactics to prey on victims’ vulnerabilities”.

“They often attempt to lure users with attractive offers and promotions, through eye-catching advertisements on food items, services and sale of travel packages on social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram,” they said.

Last month, police said victims lost S$334.5 million (US$244.8 million) to scams in the first half of the year. While that was a 2.2 per cent drop compared with the same period last year, the number of scam cases increased by 64.5 per cent.

More than half of the cases – 55 per cent – resulted in losses less than or equal to S$2,000, they added.

Young adults aged 20 to 39 were the most likely to be cheated, making up more than half of the total number of victims. They mostly fell prey to e-commerce scams, job scams and phishing scams.

The top five methods used by scammers to approach victims were through messaging platforms such as WhatsApp and Telegram, social media, phone calls, online shopping platforms and SMSes.

More than 750 cases of Android device users falling prey to malware scams were reported in the first six months of the year, with total losses amounting to at least S$10 million.

This included at least S$218,000 in CPF savings. However, the police’s Anti-Scam Command recovered some of the CPF money, bringing down the net loss to about S$130,000.