A public member was surprised to receive a call from the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) asking if he was interested in becoming a permanent resident or Singapore citizen.
“ICA! Didn’t know you had such services. Staff calling up to ask do I need a PR or citizenship. We have a promotion” said a Facebook page Complaint Singapore member on Friday (Aug 12).
Group members commented on the post, noting the call was most probably a scam.
“ICA will not call people out of a sudden it’s a scam,” said Facebook user Desmond Tan.
“We men in blue have already done a lot of roadshows telling citizens first thing when they get such phone calls or texts of easy money is not to trust not to send any phone OTPs.”
“Just look at it, delete the num, and phone nowadays can block the numbers, so pls guys, if you guys ever come across all this nonsense pls, do not trust, do not pick up and just ignore,” he noted.
It appears that others also receive calls from ICA or the Ministry of Health (MOH). “So irritating..always received MOH or ICA calls… can’t these Ministry depts work on or do something on all these scam calls? The senior or older folks will get scammed one day,” added Facebook user Shirlin Lam.
According to scamalert.sg, the most common scams follow a simple pattern. First, the scammers are offering tempting offers. The next sign is unexpected friend requests by unknown persons, followed by the scammers asking to pay for a service with gift cards or shopping credits.
If the receiver is asked to make urgent fund transfers or reveal one-time passwords, the transaction is most likely a scam.
Regarding impersonation scams, a total of 752 victims have fallen prey to scammers, losing a total S$106.4 million as of December 2021.
This scam usually involves a phone call from someone claiming to be a local government official (e.g. government official, police officer or court official), staff from a bank or telco, or a representative of a Chinese bank or courier company.
Once the person calling begins asking for personal details, bank account details or OTPs, it’s a sign of a possible scam.
Numbers with the “+” prefix are not necessarily from Singapore, so public members are urged to be cautious.
Scamalert.sg advises not to disclose personal details to anyone without verification.
“Never share confidential information such as account passwords, OTPs with anyone. Banks and government officials will never ask you for bank transfers, personal details, bank account and credit card details, or OTPs over the phone.”
The Independent Singapore has reached out to ICA for a statement and will update the article accordingly./TISG
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