Scammers are taking over students’ WhatsApp accounts and using them to ask their parents for money, with at least S$18,000 lost in September.
According to a Singapore Police Force advisory issued on 28 September and reported by Mothership on 29 September, at least eight cases have been reported this month.
In this scam variant, the scammers gain control of a student’s WhatsApp account before contacting people on the victim’s contact list.
When they reach the student’s parents, they pretend to be their child and ask for money for purported programmes or courses.
Scammers May Claim Money Is for Youth Exchanges or AI Courses
The requests can appear plausible because the scammers are messaging parents through their child’s compromised WhatsApp account.
According to the police advisory, scammers may claim that payments are needed for programmes such as youth exchanges or artificial intelligence courses.
They may also send fake consent forms bearing the logos of educational institutions to make their requests appear legitimate.
Parents who believe they are communicating with their children are then instructed to transfer money.
At least eight cases were reported in September as of the police advisory on 28 September, with total losses of at least S$18,000.
The scam comes amid growing use of compromised WhatsApp accounts in Singapore.
Police figures released earlier in 2026 showed that social media impersonation scams increased in the first half of the year. Of these cases, 391 involved scammers contacting people through compromised WhatsApp accounts.
How WhatsApp Accounts Can Be Taken Over
The police have previously warned about several methods scammers use to gain access to WhatsApp accounts.
One involves scammers trying to log into a person’s WhatsApp account using the person’s mobile number. This causes WhatsApp to send the genuine account holder a one-time password, or OTP.
The victim may then receive a message from a compromised account belonging to someone they know. The scammer asks for the OTP, claiming it was accidentally sent to the victim.
If the victim hands over the code, the scammer can use it to access the WhatsApp account.
Police have also previously warned about another method in which victims are directed to fake websites and tricked into entering an OTP or scanning a QR code. Doing so can authorise the scammer’s device to access the WhatsApp account.
Once an account is compromised, scammers can exploit an important advantage: messages sent from the account appear to come from someone the recipient actually knows.
Parents Should Verify Unusual Payment Requests Separately
The police have repeatedly advised people not to share WhatsApp OTPs with anyone and to be cautious about unusual requests for money received through the messaging service.
If a family member suddenly asks for money over WhatsApp, particularly for an unexpected course, programme or fee, parents should verify the request through another channel before transferring anything.
That could mean calling the child directly or contacting the educational institution through its official contact details rather than relying on information contained in the WhatsApp message.
Similar advice was issued by police in March over a different scam involving people impersonating educational institutions. In that advisory, police told the public to verify unexpected fee requests directly with the institution through official channels before making payment.
