'Fake friend' scammers could be using PayNow to search for victims, experts suggest masking users' names

CNA04-25

SINGAPORE: The accountant in her mid-20s received a call from an alleged acquaintance she met at a social gathering, asking for a loan of close to S$80,000 (US$58,800) to set up a new cafe. Believing ...

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For many users, this is their real name.","collect":0,"end_time":0,"defaultTopTitle":"channelnewsasia.com","property":[],"viewcount":null,"language":"en","relate_stocks":{"LU0979878070.USD":"FULLERTON LUX FUNDS - ASIA ABSOLUTE ALPHA \"A\" (USD) ACC","LU0315178854.USD":"EASTSPRING INVESTMENTS ASIAN EQUITY INCOME \"A\" ACC","LU0532188223.SGD":"JPMorgan Funds - ASEAN Equity A (acc) SGD","U11.SI":"大华银行","LU1130305938.SGD":"Schroder ISF Asian Dividend Maximiser A Dis SGD-H","SG9999003826.SGD":"日兴资管新加坡股息基金 SGD","LU1064131342.USD":"Fullerton Lux Funds - Global Absolute Alpha A Acc USD","LU0251144936.SGD":"Fidelity Sustainable Asia Equity A-SGD","LU0873338254.USD":"FULLERTON LUX FUNDS - ASIA GROWTH & INCOME EQUITIE \"I\" (USD) INC","BK6112":"综合性银行","LU0865486749.SGD":"Eastspring Investments - Asian Equity Income AS SGD-H","LU0577902611.USD":"FULLERTON LUX FUNDS - ASIA GROWTH & INCOME EQUITIE \"A\" (USD) ACC","LU0918141887.USD":"安联亚洲实际收益股票基金","SG9999001127.SGD":"United Singapore Growth Fund SGD","SG9999002406.SGD":"利安新加坡信托基金","LU0577902371.SGD":"FULLERTON LUX FUNDS - ASIA GROWTH & INCOME EQUITIE \"I\" (SGD) ACC","LU0348816934.USD":"ALLIANZ TOTAL RETURN ASIAN EQUITY \"AT\" (USD)","SG9999002620.SGD":"LionGlobal South East Asia SGD","LU0516422440.USD":"FULLERTON LUX FUNDS - ASIA FOCUS EQUITIES \"A\" (USD) ACC","LU0516422366.SGD":"Fullerton Lux Funds - Asia Focus Equities A Acc SGD","LU0572940350.SGD":"Janus Henderson Horizon Asian Dividend Income A3 SGD","LU0577902298.EUR":"FULLERTON LUX FUNDS - ASIA GROWTH & INCOME EQUITIE \"I\" (EUR) ACC","LU0588545490.SGD":"Eastspring Investments - Asian Equity Income AS SGD","LU1988902786.USD":"FULLERTON LUX FUNDS GLOBAL ABSOLUTE ALPHA \"I\" (USD) ACC","LU0210637038.USD":"HSBC GIF THAI EQUITY \"AD\" INC","BK6523":"ESG概念","LU0264606111.USD":"Janus Henderson Horizon Asian Dividend Income A2 USD","LU0577902538.SGD":"Fullerton Lux Funds - Asia Growth and Income Equities A Acc SGD","SG9999006266.SGD":"MANULIFE SINGAPORE EQUITY \"A\" (SGD) ACC","BK4532":"文艺复兴科技持仓","LU0577902454.USD":"FULLERTON LUX FUNDS - ASIA GROWTH & INCOME EQUITIE \"I\" (USD) ACC","LU1242518857.USD":"FULLERTON LUX FUNDS - ASIA ABSOLUTE ALPHA \"I\" (USD) ACC","SG9999002679.SGD":"LionGlobal Singapore Balanced SGD","SG9999002604.SGD":"LionGlobal Singapore/Malaysia SGD","SG9999002414.USD":"LIONGLOBAL SINGAPORE TRUST (USD) ACC","NUS":"如新集团","BK4585":"ETF&股票定投概念","SG9999005177.SGD":"Legg Mason Martin Currie - Southeast Asia Trust A Acc SGD","LU0048597586.USD":"富达亚洲焦点A","SG9999013486.USD":"LIONGLOBAL SINGAPORE DIVIDEND EQUITY (USD) INC A","SG9999000475.SGD":"Aberdeen Standard Singapore Equity SGD","LU0572939691.SGD":"Janus Henderson Horizon Asian Dividend Income A2 SGD","LU1105468828.SGD":"Allianz Total Return Asian Equity AM DIS H2-SGD","LU2264538146.SGD":"Fullerton Lux Funds - Global Absolute Alpha A Acc SGD","LU0348814723.USD":"ALLIANZ TOTAL RETURN ASIAN EQUITY \"A\" (USD) INC  NC","LU0048573645.USD":"富达东盟基金","LU0251143029.SGD":"Fidelity ASEAN A-SGD","SG9999004220.SGD":"Nikko AM Shenton Asia Dividend Equity Fund  SGD","LU0955669360.SGD":"Schroder ISF Asian Dividend Maximiser A Dis SGD","LU0878005551.USD":"UBS (LUX) KEY SELEC ASIA ALLOCATION OPPORTUNITY (USD) \"P\" (USD) ACC"},"translate_title":"“假朋友”骗子可能利用PayNow搜索受害者，专家建议屏蔽用户姓名","themeId":null,"isJumpTheme":false,"ttsUrl":null,"symbols_score_info":{"NUS":1,"U11.SI":0.73},"content_text":"SINGAPORE: The accountant in her mid-20s received a call from an alleged acquaintance she met at a social gathering, asking for a loan of close to S$80,000 (US$58,800) to set up a new cafe.\nBelieving that she was doing something good by helping someone in distress, the woman transferred the sum. She never heard back from the person after that.\nThe incident from June last year was just the most recent of around 10 “fake friends” scam cases that Mr Rajan Supramaniam, senior criminal lawyer at Regent Law, has handled in the last two years.\nSuch cases typically involve scammers contacting victims through text messages or phone calls, pretending to be someone they know, and then asking for financial help.\nA discussion on online forum Reddit highlighted that payment system PayNow – which allows bank users to send and receive money using mobile numbers – could be a source of information for scammers.\nSimply searching for a phone number on PayNow, using banking apps, throws up the display name that the account holder uses. For many users, this is their real name.\nMASKING KEY DETAILS\nExperts CNA spoke to agreed that scammers could be using PayNow to search for potential victims.\nAssociate Professor Kelvin Law from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) said: “The potential security vulnerability of PayNow is a serious concern because it allows scammers to obtain victims’ full names before calling them.”\nThe National University of Singapore's (NUS) Associate Professor Natalie Pang added: “My advice is to be cautious about the information we put out as much as possible. For instance, on PayNow, it is possible to change the display name.”\nAssoc Prof Law, who is with Nanyang Business School's division of accounting, proposed that for non-corporate banking accounts, banks display only the account holder's initials on PayNow. \n“For example, instead of showing ‘David Tan’, the display should show ‘D*** T****’, with the number of asterisks not corresponding to the actual length of the person’s name,” he suggested.\nAdditionally, banks operating PayNow should set an upper limit on the number of queries an individual account can make, added Assoc Prof Law.\n“If the bank’s system detects an account making an extremely high number of queries in a day, for instance, hundreds, the account’s search function should be immediately frozen for further investigation.”\n\n\n\n\nAt least one local bank is working towards strengthening the safety of the PayNow platform. UOB said it is exploring a masking feature to limit the amount of users’ information publicly available.\n“To combat such scams, UOB is actively exploring the implementation of a PayNow name masking measure, where customers’ nicknames on the PayNow platform will be replaced with a masked version of their registered account names,” a spokesperson told CNA.\nThis will prevent scammers from obtaining names of potential victims but still allow legitimate payers to verify recipients' names before making transfers.\nLOSS OF HARD-EARNED MONEY\nRegent Law's Mr Supramaniam said the S$80,000 his client lost was quite typical of such \"fake friends\" scams.\n“It usually ranges between S$50,000 and S$80,000. The lowest one was S$30,000,” said Mr Supramaniam, whose clients would come to him for legal advice on steps to take in the aftermath of such scams.\n“They lost money because they were scammed by people who claimed themselves to be friends or someone who knew them, sometimes even using someone else’s voice.”\nHe said that some victims get so drawn into the ruse that they sometimes even do the transfers over multiple transactions, as they trusted and had rapport with the perpetrators.\nMr Supramaniam said that “time is of the essence” when responding to such scams. In some cases, by the time the victims realise they have been tricked, one or two months have already passed, which lowers the chances of recovery.\n“They are very distressed ... it’s very heartbreaking as it’s their hard-earned money. Some of them were even actually going into depression. The impact can really be felt.”\nIt takes a toll on the victims’ families too, as sometimes the transactions are done without the knowledge of parents or spouses, said Mr Supramaniam.\nHe said there are challenges in recovering the lost money, as the caller first has to be traced. “Some people can just be third parties calling on behalf of others, so the money ultimately gets transferred out of Singapore.”\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n      A screenshot of the profile details page on the UOB PayNow platform.\n    \n\n\n\n\n      A screenshot of the profile details page on the OCBC PayNow platform.\n    \n\n\n\n\n      A screenshot of the profile details page on the DBS PayNow platform.\n    \n\n\n\n\n\nPolice statistics show that more than 6,300 victims fell prey to the \"fake friends\" scams from January to November last year. The losses amounted to over S$21 million.\nMr Supramaniam said that for most victims, punishment for the perpetrators is actually not at the top of their mind.\n“They are not interested in having these people be prosecuted and go to jail. The legal consequences, they are secondary. They just want to regain the money as it’s their savings.”\nEXERCISING CAUTION\nGiven how digitalised society is now, personal information could be easily found even if users mask their PayNow names, NUS' Assoc Prof Pang noted. For example, people often use their real names on social media and messaging platforms like Telegram and WhatsApp.\n\"Be very cautious about the kinds of personal information you put out about yourselves, such as your names, phone numbers and addresses,\" said Assoc Prof Pang, who is with the university's communications and new media department.\n\"One should also regularly review privacy settings of apps such as social media and chat apps, in order to restrict the visibility of one’s profile and who can view your information and profile.\"\nNTU's Assoc Prof Law, who has himself received a fake friend scam call, said users must exercise caution when someone claiming to be a friend or acquaintance asks for favours or money over the phone.\nUsers should visually verify the person’s identity, as voice cloning technology is now advanced enough for someone’s voice to be replicated with just a few minutes of audio recording.\nWhile scammers can still use deepfake technology to clone a friend’s appearance, it is more difficult to scale such operations due to the increased computing power required, he said.\nWhile users should be vigilant, the responsibility to protect customers lies primarily with the banks, Assoc Prof Law said.\nUnder current Personal Data Protection Act regulations, organisations are required to implement security measures to protect personal data from unauthorised access, collection, use, disclosure or similar risks, he explained.\n“Banks should ensure that their systems and practices comply with these regulations to safeguard their customers’ data and prevent it from being exploited by scammers,” he said.\nThe UOB spokesperson said that protecting customers is a priority, and it has “progressively introduced various security controls and measures” with the increasing number of scam cases reported in Singapore.\n“That said, our customers remain the singular most effective defence and we strongly urge them to exercise vigilance and caution in this ever-evolving threat landscape,” said the spokesperson.","kind":null,"is_publish_news":null,"is_publish_highlight":null,"is_publish_live":null,"is_publish_wemedia":null,"editions":null,"symbols":[],"gpt_button":1},"commentList":[],"isCommentEnd":true,"newsSizeData":{"likeSize":0,"commentSize":0,"repostSize":0,"favoriteSize":0,"likeStatus":false,"favoriteStatus":false},"APP":{"userAgent":"Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; ClaudeBot/1.0; +claudebot@anthropic.com)","isDev":false,"isTTM":true,"deviceId":"web-server-community-laohu8-v3","version":"4.22.4","shortVersion":"4.22.4","platform":"web","vendor":"web","appName":"ttm","isIOS":false,"isAndroid":false,"isTiger":false,"isTHS":false,"isWeiXin":false,"isWeiXinMini":false,"isWeiBo":false,"isQQ":false,"isBaiduSwan":false,"isBaiduBox":false,"isDingTalk":false,"isToutiao":false,"isOnePlus":false,"isHuaWei":false,"isXiaomi":false,"isXiaomiWebView":false,"isOppo":false,"isVivo":false,"isSamsung":false,"isMobile":false},"href":"/m/news/2430492327"}