Police, US authorities to recover over US$5 million from business phishing scam
Staff previously received an SMS and e-mail from a scammer posing as the firm’s CEO, instructing him to transfer money to a bank account based in the US
AN INVESTMENT banking firm based in Singapore will be recovering about US$5 million that was nearly lost to a business e-mail scam – with the aid of the United States authorities and the local police.
On Sep 19, an employee received an SMS and an e-mail from a scammer posing as the firm’s chief executive officer, instructing him to transfer money to a bank account based in the US for some confidential acquisitions.
“Unbeknownst to the staff, the scammer used an e-mail address that had the CEO’s full name and looked similar to the CEO’s actual email, which used an abbreviation of his first name ‘SC’,” said the police in a news release on Tuesday (Oct 8).
The employee then initiated several transfers amounting to about US$6.7 million on Sep 19 and 20 to the bank account provided by the scammer.
The fraud was discovered on Sep 20, after the staff was notified by a colleague of a similar SMS and verified the CEO’s actual e-mail address.
Following investigations, the police’s Anti-Scam Command managed to intercept the lost money with help from the US authorities.
The team is currently working with the victim and US authorities to recover the money.
Last week, The Straits Times reported that another Singapore-based company, which lost more than US$45,000 in a business e-mail scam, got its money back with the help of the police, the United Arab Emirates authorities and Interpol.
Business e-mail compromise scam is a type of phishing attack that attempts to steal money or sensitive data from an organisation.
Earlier this year, the local police force said it was working with social media giants such as Meta and Google to combat phishing scams.
This came after the police reported last November that at least 93 victims fell prey to a phishing scam involving compromised WhatsApp accounts, losing at least S$176,000 to the scammers.
The police are also working with online platforms to introduce stronger safeguards, including pre-emptive detection and blocking of URLs linked to phishing sites.
Additionally, the Online Criminal Harms Act, which has been progressively rolled out starting this year, allows the government to tell online messaging platforms to disable access to accounts suspected to be compromised or involved in scams.
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