Police warn Singaporeans travelling to Malaysia of phishing scams involving SMSes that impersonate LTA

At least 10 cases involving phishing scams with total losses of at least $24,000 have been reported in the past two weeks, said the police on Tuesday (Feb 10). 

In this scam variant, Singaporeans travelling to Malaysia would receive an SMS purporting to be from the Land Transport Authority (LTA) about unpaid vehicle tolls. 

They would receive the SMS after their mobile phones connect to Malaysia's telecommunications network for roaming.

The SMS is sent from LTA's former official sender ID named "LTA", which was decommissioned on July 1, 2024 and is no longer in use.

Victims are prompted to click on a link to pay the supposedly unpaid tolls. The link redirects victims to a phishing site where they are asked for their bank card details. 

Victims only realise they have been scammed when unauthorised transactions are made to unknown merchants using their cards. 

The police advised members of the public to ignore suspicious clickable links sent via SMS that claim to be from the LTA, emphasising that messages sent from the authority do not contain payment links. 

"All official government messages are sent from a single 'gov.sg' sender ID. Messages received from decommissioned sender IDs of any government agencies such as 'LTA' are fake," said the police, adding that the public are advised to block all decommissioned sender IDs. 

Additionally, the police urged the public not to disclose sensitive information such as banking or credit/debit card details, or one-time passwords to anyone.

Other precautionary measures include using the ScamShield app to block scam calls and filter out scam SMSes. The public can also call the 24/7 ScamShield helpline at 1799 for assistance.

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xingying.koh@asiaone.com