Amidst the ongoing epidemic, one profession has held on strong. Formidably strong. And no, I’m not talking about delivery services. Rather…
I’m talking about the scam industry.
In spite of the rather taxing circumstances, scammers seem to have only gone from strength to strength, what with epidemic-related scams, fake payouts and now…
Scam websites with the likes of Chris Brown and Bryan Wong as ambassadors.
Personal Details of 3,000 People in S’pore Leaked After They Went to Scam Websites
According to Singapore-based cyber security company Group I-B, the personal details of over 3,000 local individuals have been compromised, in what seems to have been a targeted multi-stage bitcoin scam.
In total, 248,926 sets of personally identifiable information were exposed in the three-stage fraud. Most of the victims were from the UK, with 147,610 sets hailing from the sovereign country.
Singapore ‘ranks’ just behind the United States, with 3,499 sets.
The scam operation works in a similar manner to the Bitcoin Evolution scam: a victim would receive a text message (commonly from a sender masquerading as a recognised media outlet) with a hyperlinked URL, and would then be directed to another website if the link is accessed.
The content a user sees depends on their location: users from the UK would see a website disguised as the Sun or the Mirror, while Australians would be exposed to a fake ABC Australia website.
Similar-fashioned made-up interviews and fabricated comments were posted on the websites; famous people were alleged to have made a fortune thanks to the new ‘cryptocurrency investment platform’.
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Affiliated celebrities differ. While Singaporeans would see the familiar face of Bryan Wong smiling back at them, citizens of the United States would see Chris Brown.
Other known celebrities include Andrew Forrest, Travers ‘Candyman’ Beynon, Gina Rinehart and more.
If a victim decides to click any link in the article, they will be taken to a bitcoin investment platform website where their data would be pre-filled in the registration form without consent.
The victim would then be prompted to add their account balance in BTC.
According to Group-IB researchers, there are purportedly six active domains featuring the same bitcoin investment platform (with different names): Crypto Cash, Bitcoin Rejoin, Bitcoin Supreme and Banking on Blockchain.
The source of the leak, however, has yet to be established.
Vigilance Is Key To Not Getting Scammed
As technology advances through the years, so too has the scamming industry’s bag of tricks. In fact, had one not been given any prior context, they might have actually found an article of such calibre believable.
After all, two indicating factors of a scam piece are its legitimacy and grammatical notions. Should those be fixed, it would get significantly harder to differentiate between authenticity and falsehood.
And so, it remains imperative that we stay vigilant. Grow with the times. We used to snicker at how the older generation falls prey to seemingly obvious scam ploys, but if we don’t stay vigilant and improve with the times…
We might yet find ourselves on the receiving end as well.
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