Singapore police said that since March, they have received numerous reports that malware was used to compromise mobile devices, resulting in unauthorised transactions made from victims’ banking accounts even though they did not divulge their one-time passwords to anyone. — Image by rawpixel.com on Freepik
SINGAPORE: Eight people, aged between 19 and 35, were arrested for their alleged involvement in a recent spate of banking-related malware incidents.
The police said on Thursday that since March, they have received numerous reports that malware was used to compromise mobile devices, resulting in unauthorised transactions made from victims’ banking accounts even though they did not divulge their one-time passwords to anyone.
The four men and four women believed to be involved in a number of the reported incidents were arrested during an islandwide operation conducted on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Cash amounting to S$3,800, a cashier’s order of S$9,912.56 and two mobile phones were seized during the raid, said the police.
Two of the men, Raphael Cher, 24, and Putra Alfian Ahmad Said, 22, were charged on Thursday with one count each of acquiring benefits from criminal conduct.
The other six people are being investigated for allegedly acquiring benefits from criminal conduct and unauthorised disclosure of access code.
The police urged the public not to download any suspicious files from unknown sources as they may contain malware.
“To avoid being an accomplice to crimes, members of the public should always reject requests by others to use their bank account or mobile lines as they will be held accountable if these are linked to crimes,” said the police.
“We will spare no effort to track down cyber criminals who are responsible for the banking-related malware incidents,” they added
In April, the police and the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore warned the public against downloading apps from dubious sites that can lead to malware being installed on victims’ mobile phones.
They said such malware has resulted in confidential and sensitive data, including banking credentials, being stolen.
That month, the police also alerted the public to the resurgence of phishing scams involving malware installed on victims’ Android phones. The police said then that since March, there had been at least 113 victims who lost a total of at least S$445,000. – The Straits Times (Singapore)/Asia News Network
