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In a statement, October 6, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) warned the public of fraudulent emails sent from their domain @mas.gov.sg.
The emails in question include such subject titles like ‘Fund Transmittal’ and ‘Singapore Compliance Information,’ and ask the recipient to either click on a link or open an attachment which contains malware.
MAS has advised that members of the public should not respond to such emails, open the attachments or disclose any personal information including login IDs or passwords.
Singapore has seen an alarming rise in business email impersonation scams over the course of 2018, compared to 2017, with the local police force recording more than 200 reports from January to July 2018, an increase of 9.7 per cent compared to the same period in 2017.
Specifically, some of the fake MAS emails claim that MAS has received funds from foreign central banks remitted to the email recipients.
The email then asks the recipient to pay a transaction fee and provide details of their bank accounts to a specified email address.
Furthermore, another group of emails claims that MAS is updating information on the training status of compliance officers for programmes related to anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism.
Upon receiving these types of emails, recipients are then asked to provide such information by filling out documents attached in the emails.
MAS has advised that under no circumstances would the authority ask members of the public to provide their personal or bank account information.
If members of the public receive such emails requesting personal or bank account information claiming to be from MAS, they should report this via webmaster@mas.gov.sg.
Furthermore, any financial institutions receiving emails purportedly from MAS are advised to be alert to any anomaly in the details of the sender or nature of the request and contact the relevant MAS review officer if in doubt.
