A deal for cheap tingkat meals on Facebook turned out to be too good to be true when a 32-year-old pregnant woman from Malaysia living in Singapore downloaded an apk file. Police later told her that she had likely fallen prey to a malware scam.
After responding to an ad on the social media site, she unknowingly downloaded a file containing malware and subsequently lost nearly S$60,000 from her bank accounts.
With only 90 cents left in her savings, her colleagues decided to raise funds to help her tide through the coming months, China Press reported.
Her baby is reportedly due in November and she planned on going back to Malaysia to give birth.
Ms Yan (name transliterated from Chinese), who works in Singapore, said she saw a Facebook ad at around 1pm last Monday (4 Sep) advertising “tingkat” meals.
Source: China Press
These meals are touted to be packed with nutritious ingredients that help promote health for both mother and baby.
The ad she saw allegedly stated that the meals cost less than S$5 for two vegetable dishes and one meat dish.
“I thought I could get a nutritious meal without breaking the bank, so I decided to contact the other party,” Ms Yan said.
She contacted the number on the Facebook page via WhatsApp, and the other person sent her a link to download an apk file to make payment.
When she failed to download the file, Ms Yan told the person that she didn’t want the meal anymore.
Although the other party sent a voice message telling her to wait, she lost interest and ignored the message.
But to her shock, when she went to withdraw money two days later, Ms Yan found that she couldn’t even withdraw S$50.
Her savings of nearly S$60,000 had seemingly vanished just like that.
Likely concerned, Ms Yan immediately called the bank and was told that a total of S$58,333 from her time deposit and savings accounts had been transferred.
After that, she called the police, who told her that she had likely fallen victim to a malware scam.
Speaking to China Press, Ms Yan said, “I thought it was a good deal, but it turned out to be a scam.”
Though she didn’t manage to download the apk file, her phone reportedly became extremely warm and she could not access her banking app, which made her uneasy.
She also claimed that she had never disclosed her online banking info, one-time passwords or Singpass information to anyone.
Next time someone asks me to download something, I won’t dare to anymore.
Ms Yan has apparently been working in Singapore alone for several years and is currently seven months pregnant. Her husband works in Malaysia.
Ms Yan was going to return to Malaysia before she gives birth in November, but ultimately couldn’t do so with just 90 cents left in her bank account.
To help her through the coming months, her colleagues raised funds for her living expenses.
Source: China Press
Though appreciative of the help, the pain of losing the money is no doubt unbearable. After all, Ms Yan had worked hard and painstakingly saved up nearly S$60,000 while working in Singapore for the past seven years.
“But now it’s all gone,” she lamented.
Her husband, upon learning of her predicament, reportedly came to Singapore.
In light of recent incidents, the Singapore Police Force (SPF) has warned that there’s been a rise in malware scams.
They thus advise those who may have downloaded a suspicious file by accident to turn on Flight Mode on their phones and cut off connectivity to the Internet to prevent downloading the software fully.
The police have also been conducting raids and recently arrested 10 people involved in malware scams in Singapore last month.
However, there have still been recent cases of people caught unaware by malicious apps that can compromise their banking information.
This includes mooncake scam payment ‘files’ which are actually filled with malware.
Do be extremely wary of clicking or downloading any suspicious files from third-party merchants or dodgy websites. If something appears to good to be true, it probably is.
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Featured image adapted from China Press.
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