Qoo10 Warns Users About a New Email Scam That Steals Credit Card Details

2018-06-23 , 5:13 pm

In today’s world, we’re no longer as afraid of robbers and burglars. Granted, we still keep our gates locked up tight (I certainly hope you do).

But now, we’re paying more attention to the digital robbers. The ones who’ll steal from the not-tech-savvy enough people, or just the gullible ones.

We have a name for these crimes.

They’re called scams, and they’re scary AF.

We, of course, know a lot about scams. Not that we’re scammers, but we’ve worked with the Singapore Police Force to spread anti-scam messages, like this one:

(Since you’re here, subscribe to our YouTube Channel for more informative videos lah)

Here’s another example that’s ongoing now.

Qoo10 Warn Users About Scam Email

Have you received any email from Qoo10 recently about a survey? A survey that, if you complete, will get you rewards.

Ignore it.

Because it’s a scam email.

According to the shopping platform, they’ve reported the incident to the police and there isn’t any known victims so far.

Thankfully, customers who’ve received the emails approached Qoo10 to ask about the legitimacy of the survey.

They immediately investigated the incident and found it to be an email scam, and immediately sent out emails to warn their customers.

They advised customers not to open any attachments or click on any link within the email. And to add on, they clarify that Qoo10 will not ask for any personal information or credit card details in unsolicited messages.

The phishing site was shut down by the relevant agency and the spokesperson for Qoo10 said they have preventive measures to protect their customers.

But here’s the really important thing.

At the end of the day, only the customers can protect themselves

While companies are doing all they can to protect their customers (because who wants to be the customer of a platform that doesn’t protect their information?), they can never do enough.

Like what my grandmomma always like to say, it takes two hands to clap. In order to really be safe and not fall for cyber scams, you’d have to protect yourself as well.

Because, no matter what, there’s a limit to what companies can do to protect you.

Don’t believe me? Let’s take a look at the Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) failure back in 2016.

The 2FA security system was thought to be unbeatable.

Even with the correct id and password, you’d have to enter one additional One-Time Password (OTP) sent directly to your phone number or a device.

After all, even if hackers have your account id and passwords, they won’t be able to receive the OTP.

Or so they thought.

Meet Mr Philip Loh, an unfortunate victim of hackers back in 2016.

He downloaded an Android update on Sep 2015 in the night before he went to bed.

Because sometimes, updates take a pretty long time so might as well let it be while you’re not using the phone, right?

Unfortunately for him, the update wasn’t a legit one and contains a malware which stole his credit card information, as well as his OTPs.

When he woke up in the morning, he saw that his phone was still off and did a hard reset. That was when he realised something wasn’t right.

He had received several SMSes from UOB, containing both OTPs and purchase notifications from the bank.

In total, he was charged $12,327 for air tickets in Eastern Europe.

Cyber crimes are increasing at an exponential rate today and it’s not just the companies, but we ourselves, that have to take measures to safeguard our personal information.

Based on a True Story

Well, here’s something that happened right here in the Goody Feed office.

So basically, two Goody Feed staff received an email from another staff who’s on reservist. In the email, the reservist staff “asked” if they’re still in the office.

Turned out that the reservist staff did not send the email – replying the message would lead to a reply to a weird-looking email. Sensing that something’s wrong, they corresponded via WhatsApp and found out that it’s a scam.

The scary thing is, the scammer somehow managed to find our email addresses. If they had communicated further, we’re certain the scammer would ask for our passwords.

Now, the SOP in the office is that no one is supposed to email any password – passwords, if there’s a need to be exchanged, would either be done verbally or through WhatsApp.

Here are some articles about scams in Singapore you might want to read:

And yeah, having our app in your phone (this is an app-exclusive article so only people who have the app can read it) is also useful, since we publish anti-scam messages often.

Now you know what Singaporeans are talking about today; do check back tomorrow for another piece of news of the day!