Watsons Says $2 Samsung Galaxy S9 & Lucky Draw Messages Are Fakes

Scams in Singapore is nothing uncommon.

I mean, we even four videos on it in collaboration with the Singapore Police Force (you can view all in our YouTube channel).

So when Watsons said that their latest “Lucky Draw” message is a scam?

Nobody’s surprised.

Congratulations, you’ve won Watson’s Lucky Draw!

On 9 Dec, Watsons uploaded a post on Facebook warning customers about a phishing scam.

They said that they’ve received enquiries about SMS and email scams asking people to collect rewards or prizes online.

They clarify that they did not send out any such SMS or emails and ask customers to be wary.

A person’s account of the phishing scam

The New Paper ran a report on the Watsons Lucky Draw scam.

And they managed to get hold of a man who almost fell for the scam.

Mr Noor Mohamad Khamad Khamis is a 55-year-old man working in the hotel industry.

He received a text message over the weekend telling him that he’s won a lucky draw. The text message came with an external link, which he clicked on.

(P.S. NEVER click on any link sent by a stranger!)

When he was brought to a third-party website, it offered him a Samsung Galaxy S9 at the price of…

No, not two hundred dollars.

They’re selling it to him at the sky-high price of $2.

Two. Bucks.

Just like any other person, he was excited and immediately gave his personal details, including his home address and phone numbers.

But everything came to a screeching halt when he was asked for his credit card details.

Getting suspicious, he decided to check with Watsons about the supposed lucky draw.

And that was when the truth came out: It’s fake.

But here’s the most impressive part about the entire saga:

You know how when scams first came out, we’re always talking about how it’s the elderly who’s highly likely to be scammed.

But this time, a 55-year-old was the one who almost fell for it, but didn’t. He was excited.

His mind was probably going, S9, S9, S9, S9!

And yet, he could still stop and check before making a huge mistake.

Here are a few precautionary measures you can take to protect yourself.

Precautionary measures

• Do not share your personal information including OTP/Verification codes with anyone. Such information is useful to scammers and could potentially be used for purchases charged to your mobile phone bills.
• Check the URL carefully to see if it’s a phishing website or the legitimate website
• Clarify with the official organisation about the winning before proceeding
• If in doubt, please call the Anti-Scam Helpline at 1800-722-6688 or visit www.scamalert.sg.

Or simply this rule of thumb: if it’s too good to be true, it usually is.

If you have any information about such scams, you can call the police hotline on 1800-255-0000 or submit the information online at www.police.gov.sg/iwitness

And yes, download our app or subscribe to our YouTube channel, too. We’ll bring you anti-scam messages with the police because we’re good like that.