CPF Board standardises SMSes to help protect members from scammers

After warning people in June against scammers, the CPF Board announced on Monday (July 17) that it will bolster its cybersecurity measures by taking steps to protect members from being victimised by fraudsters.

The board said in a press release that it will be standardising its SMS sender ID, using only the “CPF Board” sender ID for matters pertaining to members’ CPF, Workfare and Silver Support.

The Sender IDs “SG-Workfare” and “SG-SSS” will no longer be used.

And to protect members from scammers who impersonate the CPF Board by sending SMSes using the “CPF Board” sender ID, the board has registered this new sender ID with the Singapore SMS Sender ID Registry (SSIR) set up by the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA).

“Registering with SSIR identifies and blocks spoofed messages upfront. Only SMSes from CPF Board will be delivered using the sender ID ‘CPF Board’. 

Members can be assured that all SMSes from sender ID ‘CPF Board’ are legitimate messages from us.”

From Wednesday (Jul 20), CPF members who have registered their mobile numbers with the board will be informed of this change via SMS.

“We encourage members to retain this SMS on their mobile phones so that members can be assured that any future SMSes received on this same sender ID would be legitimate. Any SMSes purporting to be sent by CPF Board on any other Sender ID should be ignored and deleted,” the board added.

The CPF Board reminded members to remain alert and recognise scam signs to protect themselves and their loved ones.

“For example, they can check if links leading to Government websites contain the domain ‘.gov.sg‘ and reject calls with the prefix ‘+65’, as they are likely to be overseas calls. 

When in doubt, members should always verify the information with official websites or the Government agency directly,” the board added.

In April, an older woman who fell victim to an impersonation scam had S$1 million drained from her Central Provident Fund (CPF) savings, sparking concern among netizens that such an amount could be withdrawn from the account.

The victim, 75-year-old Madam Fong (not her real name), said on Friday (Apr 22) that she would receive calls up to three times a day for eight weeks by scammers claiming to be authorities in China.

In June, the board issued the following warning to the public via its Facebook page.

“Beware of scam calls and scam messages impersonating CPF officers asking for your personal details. Ignore them and do not share your Singpass ID/password or banking details with anyone. CPF officers will NOT ask for your Singpass, banking userid or password. 

Stay vigilant and pick up more tips on how you can protect yourself against scams here: cpf.gov.sg/ProtectAgainstScamsFB“. /TISG

Woman loses $1 million in CPF account to impersonation scam; netizens confused that money can be withdrawn