SINGAPORE: At least five victims have fallen prey to scams involving the sale of food items like Chinese New Year goodies since September 2023, losing about S$167,000 (US$124,000) in total.
Many of the alleged fraudulent advertisements of food items were posted on Facebook and Instagram, police said in a news release on Wednesday (Jan 17).
Victims of such scams were often redirected to messaging platforms on Facebook, Instagram or Whatsapp after clicking on links provided in the advertisements, said police.
They were then directed to download an Android Package Kit (APK) to place orders for the food items before being instructed to key in their banking credentials to make full or partial payments.
Unknown to them, however, the APK allowed scammers to access their devices remotely and steal their banking credentials and passwords.
Subsequently, the victims discovered unauthorised transactions from their banking accounts, said police.