SINGAPORE: Members of the public are advised to be wary of phishing scams that involve SMSes impersonating the Land Transport Authority (LTA) and sent to Singaporean travellers to Malaysia, the police said on Tuesday (Feb 10).
In this scam variant, victims would receive an SMS allegedly from LTA regarding unpaid vehicle tolls after their mobile phones are connected to Malaysia’s telecommunications network for roaming.
The text, sent via LTA’s former official sender ID named “LTA”, would state that the victims owed unpaid vehicle tolls, according to screenshots provided.
The sender ID was decommissioned on July 2024 and is no longer in use, the police said.
To pay the tolls, victims would be asked to click on a link that would take them to a phishing website, which would request their bank card details.
“Victims only realise that they have been scammed when unauthorised transactions are made to unknown merchants from their cards,” the police said.
Since Jan 27, at least 10 cases have been reported, with losses of at least S$24,000 (US$19,000).