\n<\/p>\n
SINGAPORE: At least 148 cases of phishing scams involving hotels and hotel booking platforms have been reported since January, with victims losing at least S$185,000 (US$144,700) in total, the police said on Friday (Oct 9).<\/p>\n
The Singapore Police Force (SPF) warned of a surge in such scams, in which fraudsters impersonate hotels or accommodation booking platforms and contact victims mainly through WhatsApp or email.<\/p>\n
Victims are typically told that they need to verify their card details or confirm an upcoming accommodation booking.<\/p>\n
In some cases, the messages contain legitimate details of the victims’ hotel reservations, making the scam appear more convincing, police said.<\/p>\n
Victims are then directed to a phishing link and told that they need to enter their card details to secure or confirm their reservations. They may also be assured that no money will be deducted.<\/p>\n
Many realise that they have been scammed only after discovering unauthorised transactions on their cards or after contacting the hotel directly to check on their bookings.<\/p>\n
Police advised travellers who receive messages about their reservations to verify the information directly with the hotel using official contact details published on its website.<\/p>\n
Members of the public should also avoid clicking links in unsolicited messages and should be alert to signs that a website may be fraudulent.<\/p>\n
Police reminded the public not to disclose personal information, bank or card details, or one-time passwords to others.<\/p>\n
They also recommended using safeguards such as two-factor or multifactor authentication, setting limits for internet banking transactions and using banks’ Money Lock features to prevent a portion of savings from being transferred digitally.<\/p>\n
Those who suspect that they have fallen victim to a scam should report fraudulent transactions to their bank immediately and inform the authorities.<\/p>\n
Members of the public can also use the ScamShield app or call the 24-hour ScamShield Helpline at 1799 to check suspicious messages or transactions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n
SINGAPORE: At least 148 cases of phishing scams involving hotels and hotel booking platforms have been reported since January, with victims losing at least S$185,000…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":91604,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dam.mediacorp.sg\/image\/upload\/s--6qwBJByD--\/c_fill,g_auto,h_676,w_1200\/f_auto,q_auto\/v1\/mediacorp\/cna\/image\/2026\/10\/09\/phishing_scam_hotel_bookings.png?itok=uAQyWdi_","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[9191,1095,2393,1274,4883,4911,31354,4880],"class_list":["post-91603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-news-sg-global","tag-bookings","tag-hotel","tag-involving","tag-january","tag-lost","tag-phishing","tag-s185000","tag-scams","wpcat-2-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=91603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91603\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/91604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=91603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=91603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=91603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}