Police warn of scammers impersonating intellectual property officers | #phishing | #scams | #hacking | #aihp

SINGAPORE: The police warned on Tuesday (Apr 12) of a new scam where victims are targeted via spoofed calls by people pretending to be officers from the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS).

Several members of the public lodged reports in April, said police in a news release. No losses have been incurred so far.

In these cases, victims would get unsolicited phone calls from someone claiming to be an IPOS officer, sometimes with a spoofed IPOS hotline number – 6339 8616.

The caller would inform the victims that they were under investigation for offences involving trademark or copyright infringement. 

Victims who denied the allegations would then be told that their details had been misused, and that they were required to report the matter to the law enforcement authorities.

The victims would then be transferred to another caller to make the report and would be asked to provide personal information such as passport details, home address and social media account login details.