10 People, Some of Them Teens, Arrested for Banking-Related Malware Scams

Scammers are everywhere nowadays.

Given the increasing amounts of money lost to scammers in recent times, the Singapore Police Force (SPF) has been ramping up its efforts to fight against these unethical people who try to steal hard-earned money.

Recently, the SPF arrested ten people for their suspected involvement in banking-related malware scam cases.

Some of those arrested were teens.

Here is more on what happened.

Singapore Police Force Arrests Potential Scammers, Including Teens

Earlier this year, between 31 July and 11 August, the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) and the Police Intelligence Department (PID) joined hands to target scammers.

A total of ten people were arrested for “their suspected involvement in the recent spate of banking-related malware scam cases”.

What raised eyebrows and caused quite some buzz is how some of those arrested were in their teens.

Amongst those arrested, one was a mere 16 years old. Another was allegedly 18 years old. The age range of the rest of the suspects was between 18 and 43 years.

On top of these ten arrested people, six others are currently assisting the police with their investigations.

This other group of people again involve teens. The six people are aged between 17 and 60 years old.

How sad that both the young and elderly are roped into such nefarious business.

Police Launched a Two-Week Operation for the Arrest

For this fell swoop, the CAD and PID worked tirelessly to carry out the two-week operation. The operations were conducted all over our island.

Investigations are currently ongoing. However, so far, it appears that the modus operandi of these criminals is setting up bank accounts which they relinquished to the scammers.

Others also provided Internet banking credentials or Singpass credentials for “monetary gains”.

Can you imagine selling your Singpass identity to someone you do not know?

We surely can’t. After all, Singpass allows you to connect to much more than just banking apps in Singapore—your Central Provident Fund (CPF) app, investment apps and other insurance apps all allow you to log in via Singpass.

You Should Be Wary of Downloading Malicious Apps

If you read the news, you would know about the malware compromising Andriod devices, resulting in unauthorised transactions made from the victims’ accounts.

These scams were also the motivation behind OCBC’s app not working when sideloaded apps were detected in the phone. Did anyone say Douyin?

You can learn more about this topic by watching this video.

To make sure you do not fall prey to such scams, the SPF reminds the public not to click on suspicious links or scan unknown QR codes.

You should also not download mobile apps from third-party websites or unknown sources.

These downloads could contain malware which compromises the security of your phone and makes you susceptible to being scammed.