Scam victims in Singapore lose SGD 28,000 in OneMotoring e-mail phishing; police issue alert

Once again, scammers have fleeced Singapore people out of their hard-earned money, this time impersonating the OneMotoring site of the Land Transport Authority (LTA). Victims have lost a total of SGD 28,000 since September 1, 2024, according to the Singapore Police Force.

In recent days, SMS phishing scammers have impersonated Singtel and Singapore Customs. The Singtel SMS scam victims lost more than SGD 100,000 within a week, falling for the bait of redeeming reward points by clicking on a link. The Singapore Customs scam informed targets about a supposed ‘detained’ parcel and asked them to correct their address by clicking on a link.

A CNA report today quoted the Singapore Police Force as saying that the OneMotoring site impersonation was done via phishing e-mails.

In this scam variant, the fraud e-mail, appearing to be from OneMotoring, would inform the targets that their vehicles’ road tax or road licence would expire because of a “billing problem”. The targets would then be asked to “Click on the link below and follow instructions”. As is usual with phishing scams, this would be a malicious link.

CNA reported: “Since September 2024, at least eight cases of this scam variant have been reported, with total losses of at least S$28,000 (US$21,600), the police said in a news release.”

Be it the Singtel impersonation scam, the Singapore Customs impersonation scam, or this new OneMotoring scam, each phishing message — SMS or e-mail — would take its target, should they be gullible enough to click on the malicious link, to a web page impersonating the real agency’s website page.

There would be telltale signs, but the target may not be able to tell the difference between the fake web page and the real web page.

Such phishing scams usually end with a transaction that the targets carry out, believing they are redeeming reward points or paying a fee for an official service; but while doing so, they are asked to reveal personal information, such as credit or debit card details, and within minutes, there are unauthorised transactions made with their credit or debit cards.

Alerting the public to the latest scam, the police said that the LTA would not notify Singapore vehicle owners of any tax expiry via e-mail.

“Notices of road tax expiry are sent to vehicles through one of the following three ways: SMSes with the ‘gov.sg’ sender identification; e-letters deposited into the vehicle owner’s OneMotoring account accessible only via Singpass login; and hardcopy letters sent to the vehicle owner’s registered address,” reported CNA, quoting the police press release.

People are encouraged to report scams at 1800-255-0000 or submit information online to www.police.gov.sg/iwitness. They can also visit www.scamalert.sg or call the anti-scam helpline at 1800-722-6688 for more information.