Police warn of impersonation scams offering concert crew positions on social media

If you see advertisements on concert crew positions put up on social media, beware. 

There have been at least 20 scam cases involving such "advertisements" since March, said the police and the Government Technology Agency of Singapore (GovTech).

The cases were uncovered via collaboration between the Anti-Scam Centre and the Singpass Trust and Safety team, said the police and GovTech in a joint statement on Friday (May 15).

The authorities urged the public "to remain vigilant against job scams involving the impersonation of representatives from legitimate recruitment agencies and the misuse of Singpass accounts".

Modus operandi

In this scam variant, fraudsters impersonate representatives from recruitment agencies and post fake adverts for concert crew positions on platforms such as Telegram and Carousell.

Victims who respond to the listings are asked to provide personal details, including their full name, NRIC number, and date of birth. 

They are also instructed to sign Personal Data Protection Act agreements as part of the supposed application process.

In some cases, scammers provide licence numbers of the recruitment agencies they are impersonating, directing victims to "verify" them using the Employment Agencies Directory on the Ministry of Manpower website in order to appear legitimate.

Victims are then instructed to change the email addresses and mobile numbers linked to their Singpass accounts to those provided by scammers, under the pretext of facilitating applications for a Certificate of Clearance (COC) or an access pass for concerts.

Once the contact details have been changed, scammers are able to reset and use victims' Singpass accounts to open accounts with financial institutions such as LiquidPay and YouTrip. 

Victims would only realise they have been scammed after being notified by the police.

The authorities said that while security measures such as face verification are in place to prevent unauthorised Singpass logins and updates, victims in these cases were socially engineered into voluntarily changing their account details, thereby allowing scammers to receive their one-time passwords and take over their accounts.

The police and GovTech stressed that members of the public should never disclose Singpass credentials to anyone, including recruitment agencies, and should not register another person's contact details in their Singpass accounts. 

"Do not assume that a person is from a legitimate recruitment agency, just because a valid recruitment agency's licence number has been provided. COC is not required for local employment purposes," said the authorities. 

Members of the public are advised to remain vigilant and adopt the ACT (Add, Check, Tell) framework, which includes adding the ScamShield app and enabling security features. 

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xingying.koh@asiaone.com