More fall prey to phishing.

The emails, sent out in the victim's name, are intended to deceive recipients into believing that the victim is stranded overseas and in urgent need of financial assistance. -- ST PHOTO: DESMOND LIM

THE number of victims falling for 'phishing' scams is on the rise.

Typically, the victim in such 'phishing' scams receive an email claiming to be from their email service provider. They are then led to believe that they are required to verify their user account information and email password with the 'service provider', failing which their email account may be suspended or terminated.

Once the victim unwittingly replies with his user information and password, the scammer takes over the email account and changes the password to prevent access by the victim.

Using the victim's email account, the scammer then sends emails to the victim's email contacts, requesting financial assistance. These emails, sent out in the victim's name, are intended to deceive recipients into believing that the victim is stranded overseas and in urgent need of financial assistance.

Typically, the scammers also ask for money to be remitted urgently to an overseas account via remittance companies.

Malay daily Berita Harian reported last Friday that the email account of former senior parliamentary secretary (Information, Communications and the Arts) Yatiman Yusoff was compromised and used to send out emails to others requesting for financial assistance.

The police advise the public to be wary of such email phishing scams. If users receive emails, claiming to be from service providers or family members, they should be careful and avoid clicking on any URL link or opening file attachments inside the email.

Comments: I think that Singaporeans should be more weary of scams because they will lose their money over nothing because of this matter. There was also one year where scams are very often and we thought it had already subsided. But who knows it came back again this year and still, many people fell prey. It could be that they ain't taught on it, or is it that the scammers are back with more clever methods. Although the senior parliamentary secretary was suspected, we hadn't really know who the real culprit is. So to prevent more people from falling prey to phishing, I think that they should contact the 'victim' stated in the email to find out about their whereabouts. Should the person is not contactable, they should send emails back asking for more personal questions to verify the authenticity of the sender. I think that Singaporeans should increase their awareness because this is a serious matter and of course no one wants to lose their hard earned money over some scammed email right?

Wendy Tang.

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