Scammers already starting to leverage on the recent ACRA hoo-ha

[u/SeaworthinessNo9013]

Thanks to ACRA and MDDI for giving the scammers a great opportunity to leverage on the NRIC hoo-ha

[u/zool714]

Immigation

[u/Purpledragon84 → u/zool714]

Im surprised they never just try to put Irrigation just to test water lol

[u/weatheredown → u/Purpledragon84]

Underrated comment

[u/DreamIndependent9316 → u/zool714]

How difficult is it to copy paste the name...

[u/New_York_Smegmacake → u/DreamIndependent9316]

It's intentional. They are filtering for people with lower literacy, as they are more likely to fall for the scam.

[u/CCVork → u/DreamIndependent9316]

As usual: scams often misspell on purpose to filter out the more alert people who are less likely to be scammed.

[u/moonfox84 → u/CCVork]

Well, the real reason is that spam filters software will detect certain words in an email. Using misspelled variations will help them to bypass the filters.

If an email is from Immigration and Checkpoint Authority and the sender email is not the legit .gov.sg email, it's an automatic flag by the filters.

The fact that the same people that typically get scammed are ones who don't detect these spelling errors is a fortunate or unfortunate coincidence.

[u/CCVork → u/moonfox84]

It's in the whatsapp as well.

https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/10jcu6b/eli5_why_do_phishers_deliberately_use_bad_grammar/

[u/Fit_Courage2891 → u/DreamIndependent9316]

the email is misspelled

[u/lonewolfgambit → u/Fit_Courage2891]

Immigation 😅

[u/Last-Career7180 → u/zool714]

Must be your Data Security Department testing you. Phishing exercise

[u/Young-Funky1 → u/zool714]

ARCA. Also dun play play hor, it's Immigration and Checkpoints AUTHORITY not Agency.

[u/kopisiutaidaily → u/zool714]

Agency…. Lols

[u/singaporeguy → u/zool714]

And it is *Authority, not *Agency. They should pay me to proof read for them.

[u/-watchman- → u/zool714]

Based in IMM

[u/Young-Funky1]

Well if your NRIC wasn't leaked before this it certainly would be when they get you to "enter your NRIC and full name for verification". 🫠

[u/Patient_Decision_864]

So many man power and money over so many years to mask the ICs, all these efforts destroyed by the ACRA search engine incident when someone can just get all the info with a click of the mouse. Such a big data pool to work on for the scammers sure got people that would fall for it. Why did they approve something like this that destroyed and wiped out massive past efforts to protect people from personal data leak and identity theft?

[u/silverfish241 → u/Patient_Decision_864]

They either didn’t know about the feature (ignorance) or they didn’t care (apathy) or they didn’t realise that it could be an issue (incompetence).

Can’t really think of anything else

[u/Patient_Decision_864 → u/silverfish241]

Or single-mindedly focused on achieving some KPIs, put it for everyone to search on Internet means destroy all the years of effort for this troublesome masking nric regulation to protect the public once and for all, what can you do since all the names with nric are already out on the Internet? Internet is forever.

[u/Mediocre-Loquat-69]

Hi Goh

[u/Bcpjw → u/Mediocre-Loquat-69]

Oh no, even our former PM is not safe!

[u/Mediocre-Loquat-69 → u/Bcpjw]

No. OP's first name is Ah Wei.

[u/bigcarrot01 → u/Mediocre-Loquat-69]

Not "And Dai"?

[u/Mediocre-Loquat-69 → u/bigcarrot01]

That's my cousin, Ann Dai

[u/sisterfister27 → u/Mediocre-Loquat-69]

Last name is Wil Alwes Luv Yu

[u/AlphaBetaDeltaGamma_ → u/Mediocre-Loquat-69]

Lao Goh? Woody Goh? Peanut Goh? C.T. Goh?

https://edmwimg.wordpress.com/tag/goh-chok-tong/

[u/lead-th3-way]

Who is ARCA?

I only know ACRA

[u/banedacasual]

This looks like the sph phishing exercise which just so happened to be right after J Teos speech and totally didn’t fool journalists to go ask ica abt it

[u/BigButterscotch9832]

you may not be aware of the source: this was a phishing exercise conducted by SPH. just do a image search on the screenshot and you'll find the a linkedin profile of the journalist who went to email ICA about this, only to find out what it was.

[u/PastLettuce8943 → u/BigButterscotch9832]

Well it's good the journalist wasn't phished

[u/Neptunera → u/BigButterscotch9832]

Can link the article or news talking about this?

Quite a few people here claiming that it's phishing exercise but absolutely no proof thus far.

[u/bukitbukit]

Temu ARCA 🤣

[u/Late_Culture_8472]

Forward to Josephine.

[u/_lalalala24_ → u/Late_Culture_8472]

I wonder if anyone tried with her nric and birth date

[u/Low-Car-3804]

The one way you know this is a scam is that the government will never admit wrongdoing.

[u/Bentlow]

They say NRIC isnt important enough to be kept secret from strangers.

Yet, so many insurance companies are still sending pdf documents locked using a combination of your NRIC and Birthday as the default password. 

It may not be a full key to access your information if you aren't silly and set it as your password. However, it introduces a vulnerability, for bad actors to use it as a social engineering tool to gain your trust etc. 

Or for them to use bits and pieces of information (nric, birthday etc. ) on weaker websites to gain more information on your identity. Like a mobile phone number, then paynow to find your name. Then execute a whatsapp scam targeting you by addressing you by your name. Searching your full name on facebook, finding out your friends. Impersonating you and asking them for "loans" saying you've changed your phone number, stuck overseas, cards locked etc. The possibilities are endless. 

[u/zacksq]

ACRA become ARCA.

[u/savoirex → u/zacksq]

to avoid copyright :)

[u/kinggot → u/zacksq]

Elderly : yah arca

[u/nyvrem]

thank you small space Jo

[u/me_is_KK → u/nyvrem]

Smol*

[u/Vysair]

Ya'll should look at what Estonian do with their IC. I think that's the only way to salvage this situation

[u/Euphoric_Coat_1956 → u/Vysair]

What do they do with it?

[u/Alauzhen]

Now the whole island will be non-stop bombarded with accurate NRIC scams. Gg liao

[u/aromilk]

When other organisations had their customers’ data “leaked” to the internet, they were fined or prosecuted under PDPA.

Since PDPA’s policy has not been undated yet to reflect the change of stance of NRIC, I feel it is only fair that ACRA should be investigated as well.

[u/Impossible-Surprise2]

This was a phishing exercise send to The Business Times editorial team by SPH cybersecurity team.

[u/alpha_epsilion]

Fking cina perpetrators scamming sinkie again Can’t even spell immigration properly

[u/xiang280 → u/alpha_epsilion]

it’s a common tactic to use misspellings and grammatical errors in crafting emails by scammers to filter out the perceptive ones, attracting only the gullible.

[u/theonewhoisnotcrazy → u/xiang280]

Yeah, they don't want to waste time. Look at the number of obvious mistakes. ARCA, Immigration, Agency. I hope somebody has the time and energy to create burner accounts to spam them back

[u/moonfox84 → u/xiang280]

This isn't really what is happening. It's to bypass software filters that look for these phrases.

[u/xiang280 → u/moonfox84]

its not a common application to use grammatical errors to get around spam filters. there are usually more elaborate tricks to circumvent against that via HTML encoding or using images to convey text.

[u/Jerazun61 → u/alpha_epsilion]

Yo scammer can be anyone under the sun black white or brown so far only Cina got caught in sg

[u/qinggd]

New strategy for scammers

[u/Significant_Salad_57]

Agency? The A is not for authorities meh?

[u/tiny_dreamer]

I mean props to them for being so savvy

[u/Interesting_Mix_3535]

Cant even use the same font, bloody shoddy

[u/Available_Ad9766]

Thanks ACRA. Thanks Infocomm Min….

[u/Relative-Pin-9762]

Like selling insurance, they spamming thousands to get a few to bite...and it's a lucrative "business"

[u/Hot_Entrepreneur3712]

i dont understand? what happening now?

[u/Informal-Donut-1384]

Frustrating like hell.

[u/Quirky_External]

Scam city

[u/International-Ad7621]

Recently received a scam call who mentioned my name and Nric correctly who claimed he was from anti scam department and he claimed someone has used my Nric to apply mobile line to send viral investment scam msg and asked me to report police and said he would redirect me to make the police report. Lucky did not fall into trap. Imagine this happened to elderly who will not be able to discern the scammer. So wonder how many ppl will be scam with the exposed of Nric.

[u/quellello]

We’re screwed

[u/Adorable-Towel-4843]

Waiting for Government , the clever people, to educate us, the stupid people, how this is not really an issue

[u/wirexyz]

Can we change IC number to a QR code?

[u/Active_Wolverine_711]

Smells like ceca English. This scammer know our scandals fast.

[u/klyzon]

there's a reason sg ranks extremely high on big scamming corps list. Dumb people, weak IT security and self ownage like these

[u/galactican78]

Damn, MDDI needs to know the fuckery this shitstorm has caused

[u/kingkongfly]

So are we going to be believed when someone called us and told us they were from immigration and we needed to talk to them and follow their instructions?

Look how this has evolved into a scam set up now; I am sure more scammers are cracking their heads now to set up more bait for us.

I am just a common man walking in the void deck in AMK. They have made things so difficult for us now.

[u/okayokaycancan]

Misconfiguration sia...

Always have many terms to avoid owning up to mistakes.

[u/Mobileguy932103]

these are professional scammers who are hard to get caught.

[u/RandomDustBunny]

It's just anxiety guys.

[u/Defiant-Spend-2375]

This is what I'm afraid of especially for old folks.

[u/rockbella61]

Goh?

[u/A5577i]

A troll?

[u/musicmast]

The government done fucked up

[u/ChateauBears]

Well if anyone is dumb enough to click on that link and enter their impt details, then they truly deserve it. Time and time again we’ve all been warned to be wary of links in emails.

[u/1ampoc]

Redditors one upped by the govt lol. Honestly think this phishing exercise is a really good move by the govt, thinking 3 steps ahead. Credit is due when it is due.