SINGAPORE: Barely a week goes by without another online scam being reported. 

The Singapore Police Force confirmed that there has been a huge increase in the number of cases of fraudulent purchases charged to mobile phone bills.

They told Channel NewsAsia on Wednesday (Jan 11) that there were 108 such cases reported between January and November 2017.

It’s a huge jump from the zero cases reported in 2015 and 2016.

What’s behind this huge increase? Scammers hacking or cloning Facebook accounts.

Police said there were 56 such cases reported between January and November last year 

So, what can you do if you have a Facebook account and want to protect yourself?

Check your privacy settings to ensure only your friends are privy to the information available. It makes it harder for the scammers to make you their victim.

And here are 5 other tips:

RECEIVED A NEW FRIEND REQUEST FROM AN OLD FRIEND? IT MIGHT NOT BE THEM

That request could be from someone who had cloned your friend’s account. The scammer would “copy wholesale” a Facebook account including the name, profile photo and even cover photo of the victim’s account.

With this cloned account, the scammer will attempt to add friends from the victim’s Facebook account and trick them into believing that the scammer is an actual friend. Once accepted, the scammer will privately message friends of the victim for one of two things – money, or their mobile number and service provider.

In the former, there is usually an accompanying sob story.  In the latter, the scammer usually asks for a three-digit One Time Password (OTP) to be sent to their mobile number. This OTP is used make fraudulent purchases which are charged to the victim’s mobile phone bills, like how these victims have lost S$16,000 from such scams.

“Do not share personal information such as identification numbers, passport details, contact details, bank account or credit card details, and OTP or verification codes with anyone. Such information is useful to scammers,” the police said.

PROTECT YOURSELF BY LIMITING YOUR PUBLIC VISIBILITY

To keep scammers at bay, hide your friend list. 

While they can still fake your account, digital educator Carol Loi said not being able to go through your friend list will make it harder for them to target your friends.  

“If the imposter cannot see who my friends are, he cannot contact my friends,” she said. 

To hide your friend list, go to your “friends” tab and click on the pencil logo to edit your privacy settings. Change it to “me only” to ensure that no one else can see the list.

CLAIM YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA SPACE

Calling it quits on your social media accounts will probably not work and might worsen the situation than help it.

Entrepreneur Terence Quek has had his old photos previously posted on Facebook used to create multiple scam accounts in the last two years.

“If you are not on social media, you have no idea on what’s happening in the social media world because they are totally kept off of it. People might think this (the fake account) is the real you,” Mr Quek said.

“So I would say to build a stronger social media presence and add your real friends,” he added.

WHAT CAN YOU DO WHEN YOU’RE BEING IMPERSONATED?

Those who have been impersonated or have come across fake accounts can lodge a report with Facebook using their reporting tools.

Users can do this by going to the profile of the account, and click on the “report” button under the cover photo. Facebook will then provide a range of reasons as to why the profile should be reported.  

Some scammers will block the real user’s account to avoid being detected and blocked. When that happens, get your friends to report the account on your behalf because Facebook has that option too.

TALK TO YOUR FRIENDS

Friends are an essential part of the experience of using social networking sites. Engage them in damage control.

Civil servant Stephen Sim had his Facebook account cloned twice just this past month.

“The scammer would go down my friend list and used Facebook messenger to ask for my friend’s phone numbers. My friends told me and said that the messages were uncharacteristic of me. It sounded different and the English wasn’t very good,” he said. 

The scammer even said that he lost all the contact numbers because he had switched phones.

It was only when his friends alerted him to the messages sent from the fake account that Mr Sim was able to act on them by reporting the accounts to Facebook.

“It took them less than a minute to shut the profile down,” said Mr Sim. 

Last month, Facebook said 10 per cent of its 2 billion monthly users are estimated to be duplicate accounts. 

“If we are speaking of a very rudimentary hacker who clones one account and then targets all of that user’s friends only, that is pretty much difficult to prevent as well. For us, this would be a similar situation where someone ‘borrows’ a friend’s or a relative’s credit card to make purchases without prior notice,” said Emma Lee, regional marketing lead for CashShield. 

“If the activities are very widespread across various demographics, it would seem to be the act of a syndicate or at least a group of fraudsters,” she added.

SINGAPORE: The body of a 65-year-old man was found in his flat at Block 30, Marine Terrace on Tuesday (Jan 9).

Channel NewsAsia understands that police found a decomposed body inside the flat at about 9pm.

Next-door neighbour Mr Ng, who had not seen the deceased for about a week, realised something was amiss on Monday night and raised the alarm.

“It was Monday, just past midnight,” Mr Ng said. “I was coming back. The dog barked at me as usual, but I never thought of anything.”

The next morning, the 60-year-old retiree decided to give his neighbour, Mr Fu, a call as they had not seen each other for a week or so. 

“That was the first time that I reached the voicemail,” he added. “He was a guy who would call me back, no matter how.”

When Mr Ng called again in the afternoon, he got voicemail again. “I was thinking, something is really wrong,” he said. When he tried knocking on Mr Fu’s door, the dog barked at him again.

That was unusual, Mr Ng said. His friend would always be with his dog in his room with the air-conditioning on, he said, so it was impossible that the pet would be out in the living room for so long.

It was then that Mr Ng decided to call the man’s sister. Family members called the police, who gained access to the house with the help of a locksmith, he said.

“They didn’t want to damage anything in case he was hospitalised or went somewhere without informing anybody,” Mr Ng said. “But the first thing they saw was him lying on the floor near the door.”

“UNDERSTANDING”, HELPFUL ANIMAL LOVER

Mr Ng said he had hoped that nothing bad had happened to his neighbour. “(I thought) maybe he went on a holiday,” he added.

Mr Ng also wondered why his neighbour did not knock on his door if he was feeling unwell.

“Once in a while, if he had problems, he also knocked on my door,” Mr Ng said. “Why not this time?”

“This kind of thing should not happen,” added Mr Ng, who said he understood his neighbour used to work as a chief steward with Singapore Airlines. 

“He was still young. He just retired half a year ago.”

Mr Ng said they were good friends and would even share leftover meals.

“You see, he’s really understanding,” he told Channel NewsAsia. “He likes to help people. If you’re not sure about anything, he will explain it to you.”

Mr Ng also described his neighbour as a “great” animal lover. Mr Fu would feed every stray cat in the neighbourhood for “breakfast, lunch and dinner”, he said.

“If he was still alive, he’d still be feeding them,” Mr Ng said, adding that the dead man lived alone with a pet dog.

Channel NewsAsia has contacted the police for more details.

SINGAPORE: Six women have been arrested for allegedly providing sexual services while working illegally at massage parlours, said the police on Wednesday (Jan 10). 

The suspects, aged between 21 and 43, were arrested during police operations in Jalan Besar and Little India on Tuesday and Wednesday. 

Three massage outlets were also found to be operating without valid licences. 

Separately, 11 women were arrested for working illegally as hostesses in public entertainment outlets along Jalan Besar and Syed Alwi Road. 

The police said action will be taken against the owners of the unlicensed massage outlets as well as those who employed the hostesses illegally. 

SINGAPORE: From this month, SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG) will progressively publish more information on the MySkillsFuture.sg portal, including information on how past trainees have rated the courses they have attended.

Speaking in Parliament on Wednesday (Jan 10), Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Education Low Yen Ling said this is to help Singaporeans and course applicants make better informed decisions, based on the feedback by other course participants.

She explained that SSG will publish information on course quality and the trainees’ rating on course outcomes. This, she said, covers areas like effective learning, standards of the trainers, course content, impact on job performance and job scope, as well as customer service.

“Course applicants can be assured that the key criteria of quality, course transparency and accountability really underpins SSG’s efforts to enhance Singaporeans’ learning needs,” she added.

Ms Low was responding to a clarification from MP Lee Bee Wah, who asked if the Government would consider allowing course applicants to consider an open review of courses, similar to reviews of hotels and restaurants that are widely available online.

Ms Low noted that since the MySkillsFuture.sg portal was launched, it has been the intent of SSG and the Ministry of Education to put more information online. She added that a community feedback feature was also recently introduced in the portal, which allows course participants to directly provide their feedback and views on the quality of learning on the respective SkillsFuture Credit-eligible courses they attended.

She also stressed that SSG has a six-pronged criteria to evaluate training course providers before accrediting them to offer Singapore Workforce Skills Qualification (WSQ) courses. This includes course materials, training delivery, system of assessment as well as the training organisation’s financial management practices.

“The training provider must meet these standards and requirements before it can be appointed as an Approved Training Organisation (ATO) to deliver WSQ’s programmes,” she said. “To ensure their compliance, SSG regularly audits the ATO’s systems and processes, and the outcomes of such audits are reviewed and considered by SSG for the renewal of the ATO’s application to offer training.”

In response to a supplementary question from Nominated MP Chia Yong Yong, Ms Low also stressed that the track record of the organisation will also be taken into consideration.

“If any members of the public are aware that the particular organisation in terms of history, or if their background is dubious due to their linkages with other service providers, we welcome them to step forward and share this information with SSG.”

SINGAPORE: Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugan said that while Fire Code non-compliant cladding are in the process of being tested or taken down, the SCDF has been assessing the safety of buildings and publishing the results to the public.

Mr Shanmugam told Parliament on Wednesday (Jan 10) that “fire safety is absolutely important which is why SCDF makes that assessment first while the testing is going on because testing takes some time”.

“Where there is no unrestricted access to the buildings, SCDF requires the building owner to inform all the tenants of the nature of the cladding and the issues surrounding so the tenants can make a considered assessment even though we say it is safe. 

“We believe it is safe but we think the tenants ought to know. Where there is unrestricted public access, we think that should be made public and it’s up on the SCDF’s website. That’s the approach that’s being taken.”

Mr Shanmugam added that public safety is of utmost importance when it comes to fire safety regulations.

“In respect of other brands of cladding, what has been doable has been done. We’ve contacted industry partners, we’ve required Qualified Persons (QPs) to give us returns, to explain, to relook at their building, make a second round of check in terms of, ‘We’ve identified these brands as being problematic, they better check.’ … We’ve also ask for an annual audit to be expedited. And this should cover all the others,” he said.

The minister also responded to a parliamentary question from Non-Constituency MP Daniel Goh relating to the certification system.

Mr Shanmugam said it would be “too quick a conclusion” to suggest that the integrity of the certification system has been compromised, referring to the mix-up of cladding material that was uncovered in the fire at 30 Toh Guan Road that caused the death of a 54-year-old woman.

“But if you ask me to speculate in August as to how this came about, I think it would have been difficult for me to have speculated that it’s because there was a mixture in the warehouse. 

“So I think one has got to be careful about jumping into conclusions at this point as to whether the certification system has been compromised because the certification system relies on international systems of repute which are recognised worldwide. And also institutions in Singapore can either rely on those certificates or make sure the testing has been done or test themselves,” Mr Shanmugam said.

“At this stage, we have no evidence or reason to suspect that they have been suborned. I think we will be investigating all possibilities, including whether there have been manufacturing defects and differences between samples and actual material.”

Mr Shanmugam also updated that the claddings of 18 buildings with Alubond are in the process of being taken down. For those with Bolliya cladding, 3 are being taken down while 4 are in the process of being taken down.

Earlier investigations from the Toh Guan Road incident revealed that the composite panels used as claddings on the building’s external walls were combustible and not certified as Class 0 as required under the Fire Code.

In August, SCDF also issued a public statement that said the supplier of cladding Alubond had mixed up stocks of two models with different fire safety standards and supplied them to 41 buildings, including the Toh Guan Road building which caught fire.