SINGAPORE — Phone-related scams more than doubled from January to November this year, compared to the same period last year.

The Singapore Police Force said in a media release on Wednesday (Dec 13) that victims have reported charges incurred on their mobile phone bills after befriending strangers on Facebook and providing them with PIN or verification codes to them.

The scammers would initiate friend requests to the victims via Facebook, with some going to the extent of replicating accounts that resembled the victims’ friends. They would then ask for the victims’ mobile phone numbers and telco providers once the Facebook friend request is accepted.

The scammers would then make online purchases of gaming credits or online gift cards and charge them to the victims’ mobile phone bills, after the victims also provided their One Time Passwords (OTP)/Verification Codes for the fraudulent transactions.

The victims only realised they had been scammed when they received their mobile phone bills.

Some 130 cases were reported between January and November this year — a 120 per cent increase from the same period in 2016 – with the total amount scammed to date at S$16,000, said the Police, adding that more cases have also been reported this month.

As a precaution, the Police advises the public not to share their OTP or verification codes with anyone, and to be cautious of accepting requests from strangers on social networking sites, as “they may not be who they claim to be”.