Beware of scammers trying to take over your WhatsApp account: police

The Singapore Police Force (SPF) said on Wednesday (18 April) that it has received reports regarding WhatsApp accounts being taken over by scammers.

Victims would first receive a WhatsApp message from one of their contacts, whose WhatsApp account might have been compromised, asking for WhatsApp verification codes that they have received via SMS to be forwarded to said contact.

After sending the codes to the scammers, the victims would then lose access to their WhatsApp accounts.

The SPF added that in a version of the scam seen overseas, the scammers would use the information obtained to deceive the victims’ contacts into purchasing gift cards and then sending over the password for said card. The gift cards would then be sold online.

Members of the public have been advised to beware of unusual requests received over WhatsApp, even if they come from a known contact; to, if in doubt, call the request sender to personally verify the authenticity of a request; and to enable the “Two-step Verification” feature on their WhatsApp account. This feature is accessible under “account” in the “settings” tab of the app.

To seek scam-related advice, members of the public may call the National Crime Prevention Council’s anti-scam helpline at 1800-722-6688 or visit www.scamalert.sg.

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