Beware of Social Media Investing Scam, Mobile phone Messenger App Scam, Phishing Emails or Bogus Phone Calls and SMS
In view of the recent rise in various forms of phishing email, bogus phone calls, SMS and online frauds, fraudsters will impersonate courier companies, government institutions, law enforcement authorities, banks, airlines, online shopping, online entertainment or video streaming companies to call and invite you to take part in surveys, join lucky draws, log in to receive prizes, confirm sending and receiving mail parcels, purchase products or services, etc., and then send phishing emails or spoof SMS messages to trick victims entering or providing personal information, credit card accounts or passwords to steal funds.
Fraudsters will also use social media to advertise the investment experience with well-trusted faces of celebrities and obtain considerable returns in the short term to attract attention, and then ask victims to provide credit card information over the phone to open a Cryptocurrency investment account. Fraudsters use fake investment account balances to show the profits in a short period of time, thereby tricking victims into using credit cards to increase their investment amount in order to defraud money.
Messaging apps (e.g. WhatsApp) are a great way to keep up with friends and family, but they can also be a method for fraudsters to defraud you. They deceive victims by pretending to be relatives and friends. Fraudsters will use different excuses to ask victims to purchase gift cards or consumption coupons, or claim that a company has an annual lucky draw, and ask victims to provide personal information, credit card accounts or passwords to defraud.
To protect your privacy and wealth, please beware the characteristics of spoofed SMS, bogus phone call, phishing email and messages, phone calls or fake website:
- They may come from a suspicious email address or have a misleading domain name (URL) ;
- They may have grammar or spelling errors or get facts wrong that you can spot ;
- They may offer incentives, such as prizes or rewards, vouchers for completing a survey, entering into a lucky draw, confirmation of parcel delivery or promoting products and services in order to trick you into revealing personal and financial information;
- They may claim there is a problem with your account and ask you to provide sensitive information such as login names, passwords or One-Time Passwords.
- Fraudsters take advantage of the fact that overseas / outbound calls are not easily traced to commit fraud through such calls. Overseas / Outbound phone numbers are displayed with a prefix of “+”, such as "+886", "+02", "+04" and "+09". Unless you know and trust the calling number, you should be alert to incoming calls from abroad.
- The mobile device suddenly loses its signal where it used to receive it and does not return to normal for a long time. If the above situation happens, please check with your telecommunications service provider immediately. Fraudsters may have impersonated the customer with stolen personal information, and ask the telecommunications service provider to issue a new SIM card in order to receive one-time security passwords for operating online banking and transferring funds from the customer's account.
- Fraudsters pretended to be buyer on free trading platforms and request to buy item by post. Fraudsters will try to direct seller out of the trading platform for contact, provide unknown website or suspicious links claiming to be from the trading platform, and ask seller to enter personal information, credit card account and one-time password for payment purpose.
- Tout the experience of different celebrities investing in Cryptocurrency.
- Foreigners claiming to be trading brokers calling clients and lobbying to open investment accounts with small amount of money.
- Messages from friends and relatives claiming to have a sweepstakes and asking for a credit card account number and password for registration.
- Messages from relatives and friends requesting to purchase gift cards or consumption coupons.
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