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He received a message from an Instagram account he thought was his friend’s, as the username and picture were similar.
Wanting to be known only as Mr Meng, 21, he said in an interview with the police that the “friend” said she had entered a contest organised by Grab and needed votes from her friends.
She asked Mr Meng for his phone number, and he was told to share the one-time password provided by Grab to cast as “votes”.
To his surprise, he discovered the fraudster had gained access to his GrabPay account and used $390.80 to purchase credits on a gaming website.
He called his friend to clarify the incident and realised he had been scammed.
A similar tactic was used on five other impersonation victims The New Paper contacted.
Police told TNP that reports of social media impersonation scams have been on the rise, with more than 206 reports made last month.
These scams were the fourth most common type last year, with 810 cases reported, 703 cases more than 2018.
More than $3.1 million was lost last year from these scams, including the largest case involving $330,000.
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