Woman warns against new scam involving polyclinic bills

SINGAPORE: A woman took to social media in a public service advisory of sorts, warning others after she received a sketchy text message.

“BEWARE! New kind of scam, was shocked when I saw this message because I didn’t see any doctors in polyclinic/hospital recently. Checked with healthhub app, no outstanding bills,” she wrote in a post on the COMPLAINT SINGAPORE Facebook page on Friday (Jul 11).

She added a screenshot of two such messages, one dated Jun 13 and the other from that day itself. The messages, which are exactly the same, read:

“Your NHGP (National Healthcare Group Polyclinics) bill is ready in the HealthHub app (Bill Number: # 0A25108372 #). Please make your payment if you have not done so. Thank you.”

The messages had come from a sender called ACCOLADE. When a commenter wrote that this should raise suspicions, the post author answered that she had first thought it was the name of an agency.

The commenter then wrote that when his friends receive text messages regarding hospital appointments, these have ‘Singhealth’ as the sender.

Other commenters, however, expressed doubts that this is a scam.

“Usually if it’s a scam, they give you a link to con you to click and pay, right?” one asked.

“How is it a scam? Probably an error, I guess someone is using your phone, no?” another commented.

“I am @ CGH now. The backend servers have broken down – self-service kiosks are not working, and payment services are having disruptions. This is not a scam, just IT-related issues across NHGP & SingHealth, it seems,” a third wrote.

The post author pointed to the bill number included in the SMS and added that someone who is not alert may automatically make a payment.

Another commenter wrote that they’ve received the same SMS.

A quick search reveals that the post author is likely correct in assuming this is a scam.

Sometime ago, Singapore General Hospital issued the following advisory:

“Spot Scam at SGH. A link can contain the words ‘SGH,’ ‘SingHealth,’ or ‘HealthHub’ and still be fake. Do not get lured to fake ‘SGH’ pages! You may get a message about promotions or payment for a medical bill. The link in the message takes you to a fake SGH, SingHealth, or HealthHub login page where you’ll get scammed out of your money,” it reads.

In a Jun 19 social media post, SGH also explained that it had been alerted by members of the public regarding possible scam calls, wherein the caller requested confirmation of appointments or outstanding medical bills and also sought personal information.

The hospital urged people to ignore these calls and never give out personal information, including their name, identification number, contact details, credit card details, or OTP. /TISG

Read also: TikTok scammer: Man, 76, loses S$55,500 to ‘good-looking’ woman who reached out to him