SINGAPORE – At least 12 cases of phishing scams that involve the impersonation of supermarket chain FairPrice have been reported to the police since August.
In a statement on Sept 5, the police said the victims of these reported cases have lost at least $9,000 in total. The police also warned that the number of such scams has increased recently.
In this scam variant, victims would encounter advertisements or posts on social media platforms such as Facebook offering significant discounts on items allegedly from FairPrice.
After clicking on the link in the advertisement or post, they would be redirected to a fake website and prompted to key in their shipping address, bank details and one-time passwords to purchase the “discounted” items.
Victims would realise they had been scammed only after discovering unauthorised transactions charged to their bank cards, the police said, adding that in some cases, transactions were made in foreign currencies.
On Aug 31, the supermarket chain said in a Facebook post that it had been alerted to a scam circulating on Facebook which falsely claimed that it was offering $500 gift cards for $9.
“Please be advised that this is a scam, and these activities are not affiliated with or endorsed by FairPrice in any way,” said the post.
Over $9k lost to phishing scams impersonating FairPrice since August
