Significant rise in e-mail impersonation scams: Police

There has been a significant rise in the number of reported e-mail impersonation scams, with victims here having lost some S$19 million this year alone, said the police.

A police news release issued on Monday (14 November) said that 165 such cases were reported between January and September this year – a 20 per cent rise compared with the same period last year.

The victims of this type of scam are usually businesses with overseas dealings and use e-mail as their main mode of communication, noted the police.

Scammers first hack into either a victim’s or victim’s business partner’s e-mail accounts. They will obtain information from e-mails and impersonate someone whom the victim has dealings with, such as a business partner.

Spoofed e-mail accounts similar to the genuine e-mail addresses will then be created to communicate with the victim and to ask for money. The scammers will tell the victims that there is a problem with their usual bank account and provide details of a new account for payments to be made to.

Citing one case in which US$100,000 (S$140,000) was recovered for a local company that fell victim to an e-mail impersonation scam, the police noted that “successful recoveries like this are few and far between”.

“This is because scammers would typically swiftly cause funds to be completely transferred out of the bank accounts they control,” said the release.

Stay safe

To avoid such e-mail impersonation scams, police advise businesses to: use strong passwords and regularly change the passwords of their e-mail accounts; use two-factor authentication for e-mail accounts; and to update anti-virus, anti-spyware/malware and firewall on their computers.

Paying attention to sudden changes in payment instructions and accounts from business partners or creditors will also help.