Be very wary if you’ve received WhatsApp messages or emails inviting you to virtual meetings or even contribute to “urgent funding assistance” sought by the prime minister.<\/p>\n
Earlier on May 6, the police had alerted the public of a scam variant<\/a> where victims were convinced to sign a “non-disclosure agreement” (NDA) \u2014 before meeting virtually with senior government officials, including the president or ministers.<\/p>\n A man, who had prior interactions with government officials, has now become the latest victim of this scam variant.<\/p>\n He lost at least $4.9 million after believing that Prime Minister Lawrence Wong had sought his help, through Secretary to the Cabinet Wong Hong Kuan, to provide “urgent funding assistance” relating to the situation at the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n Screenshots of WhatsApp messages and an email received by the victim show the scammer claiming to be acting on the instruction of the Prime Minister’s Office.\u00a0<\/p>\n The WhatsApp accounts used to scam the victim also had profile pictures showing the cabinet secretary and prime minister.<\/p>\n In the email, the scammer claims that the matter being discussed is “highly sensitive and controlled” and sought the victim’s cooperation not to discuss the contents of the email with any third parties.<\/p>\n He was also “instructed” to sign an NDA and provide a copy of his identification card.<\/p>\n The victim was provided with a copy of an “official letter of guarantee” purportedly bearing the signature of PM Wong.\u00a0<\/p>\n Notwithstanding the likeness of the communication, the email address used was clearly not an official email address.\u00a0<\/p>\n Instead, the email was sent from a Proton Mail account with the domain “proton.me” and the username “WongHongKuan.secretarycabinet”.<\/p>\n The Singapore Government’s official email domain is “gov.sg”.<\/p>\n In the “letter of guarantee”, the victim was informed that the funds sought would be reimbursed by the Singapore Government within 15 business days.<\/p>\n He was then invited to a Zoom video conference that appeared to involve PM Wong, as well as other local and overseas government officials \u2014 who were actually fabricated using deepfake artificial intelligence technology.\u00a0<\/p>\n The victim was contacted via WhatsApp after the meeting and later transferred at least $4.9 million through a series of transactions to a corporate bank account supplied by the scammers.<\/p>\n He only realised that he had been scammed after contacting the Secretary to the Cabinet on Thursday.<\/p>\n Members of the public are urged to <\/strong>not transfer money or provide identification card details to unknown or unverified persons.<\/p>\n Government officials will never ask for money transfers, bank login details, or mobile app installations from unofficial app stores over emails or phone calls.<\/p>\n Calls will also never be transferred to the police or any other government officials.<\/p>\n Members of the public can safeguard against scams by using the ACT (Add, Check, Tell) framework, which involves adding the ScamShield app and setting security features.<\/p>\n If in doubt, call the ScamShield helpline at 1799.<\/p>\n [[nid:735214]]<\/p>\nModus operandi: ‘Highly sensitive and controlled’ matter\u00a0<\/h2>\n
![\"Email](\"https:\/\/www.asiaone.com\/sites\/default\/files\/inline-images\/Police-Advisory-Impersonation-PM-Lawrence-Wong-49-million.png\")
<\/p>\n$4.9 million lost to scam<\/h2>\n
![\"Screenshots](\"https:\/\/www.asiaone.com\/sites\/default\/files\/inline-images\/Police-Advisory-Impersonation-PM-Lawrence-Wong-49-million-WhatsApp.png\")
<\/p>\nHow to prevent yourself from becoming a victim<\/h2>\n