Delete text messages urging renewal of PayNow ‘certificate’
If you receive a text message urging you to update your PayNow “certificate” via a provided link, think twice before clicking on the link.
The police in a statement on Dec 13 said conmen were using a new phishing scam in which victims were tricked into giving away their personal details after being lured to a fake PayNow website.
The victims would receive a text message saying: “Pay Now: Your certificate expires in 3 days. Renew it now at (URL link) to keep your services active.”
Those who clicked on the link were taken to a fake PayNow website that asked them to key in their credit card details and other personal information – such as billing address, name, date of birth and e-mail address – to renew their PayNow “certificate”.
The police said PayNow does not issue any digital certificates to the public, nor does it have a website for people to share their personal and credit card details.
All details provided to PayNow should be through the linked banks’ official sites or applications, the police said.
If in doubt about any PayNow-related links or messages, PayNow users should contact their banks for assistance through the official bank hotlines.
To avoid falling victim to scams, the police said people should adopt precautionary measures such as installing the ScamShield app on their mobile devices, refraining from clicking on links from unknown people, and telling the authorities and loved ones about scams.
According to a Singapore Cyber Landscape 2023 report, published by the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore, phishing attempts fell in 2023 by 52 per cent, compared with 2022, to 4,100 reported cases.
The drop in phishing cases reported is consistent with the police’s statistics for scams in 2023, which recorded 5,938 phishing scams amounting to $14.2 million in losses, compared with 7,079 cases in 2022.
Get The New Paper on your phone with the free TNP app. Download from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store now