Man, 70, scammed after he gets pop-up alert that his computer's 'hacked' and calls 'Microsoft helpline'

Singapore and Hong Kong police foiled a technical support scam and recovered more than $370,000 with the help of DBS and UOB banks.

The scam victim was a 70-year-old man who was surfing the Internet on his computer when a pop-up notification appeared.

Unable to close the pop-up notification, he called the “Microsoft helpline” number that was displayed on the pop-up notification.

He was informed that his computer was "hacked" and his bank accounts were used for illegal activities.

The man was then re-directed to a "SPF cybercrime unit officer", who alleged that the man’s bank accounts were used for illegal activities.

He was instructed to share his bank account credentials, which included his user ID and passwords, to facilitate the "investigation".

This allowed the scammers to take control of his bank accounts, leading to monies being transferred out.

On April 18, DBS detected suspicious transactions of about $180,000 transferred from his bank account to a bank account in Hong Kong.

The DBS Anti-Scam Team immediately blocked further transactions from the victim’s bank account to prevent further losses and notified the Anti-Scam Centre of the Singapore Police Force, which notified the Hong Kong Police Force’s Anti-Deception Coordination Centre regarding the bank account the money was transferred to.

As the man was uncontactable, the Anti-Scam Centre activated officers from the Ang Mo Kio South Neighbourhood Police Centre’s Community Policing Unit to visit his residence, but he was not at home.

The Anti-Scam Centre tried other means and managed to reach the man’s family friend, who disclosed that $240,000 was missing from the man’s UOB bank account.

The Anti-Scam Centre immediately worked with UOB to suspend the man’s UOB bank account and traced the funds to a bank account in Hong Kong.

At the same time, the Anti-Scam Centre worked with its Hong Kong counterpart and successfully recovering the full amount from the Hong Kong bank account.

This swift coordination between the police and the banks led to more than $370,000 recovered.

You are advised to take the following steps immediately if they believe that they have fallen prey to such scams:

• Turn off your computer immediately to limit any further activities that scammers can perform.
• Uninstall any software that you have installed on the instructions of scammers.
• Perform a full anti-virus scan on your computer and delete any malware detected.
• Report the incident to your bank to halt further activities relating to your bank accounts.
• Change your Internet banking credentials and remove any unauthorised payees who may have been added to your bank accounts.
• Report the incident to the bank and the police.