Dear Valued Customer,
There has been an increasing trend of telecommunications and internet scams targeting local financial institutions’ customers. The Bank would like to emphasize and remind you of the following tips according to the special traits of each type of scams to help keep your funds and account safe:
1.The scammers may impersonate officials from government agencies, banks, telecommunication companies or even your friends and family members etc, to try and defraud you. Do not provide any personal information, bank account information, debit or credit card details, including but not limited to account numbers, card numbers, login ID, password, registered mobile number with the bank, transaction one-time password (OTP) etc., to people you have never met.
2.Scammers may use illegal means to imitate official telephone numbers. Do not accept any request via any channels by online acquaintances or unknown persons for bank transfers, loans, freezing/ unfreezing of accounts, account opening /closure service, cancellation or verification of credit card transactions, points redemption, claiming of prizes/unknown refunds, resetting of password, changing of contact details linked to your personal account, mobile/ online banking account, debit, and credit card. Practise good cyber hygiene such as installing antivirus software to scan for virus, updating apps, web browsers, and operating systems on all devices regularly, changing passwords and using multifactor authentication and etc. to minimise the risk or cyber threats.
3.The Bank will not send any clickable links to customers via email, SMS or online chats. Do not click on links found in suspicious looking emails or SMSs in order to prevent your email account and bank account from being compromised.
4.To minimize the risk of online fraud, it is advisable to adopt good internet habits including the installation of anti-virus software, upgrading of applications, web browsers and operating systems regularly, changing passwords in a timely manner or using multi-factor authentication.
5.Ensure that your bank account is used only for your personal banking needs and alert the bank immediately if you find any discrepancy or unauthorised transactions in your account.
If you suspect that you have responded to a scam with your personal or bank account information, mobile/ online banking, debit/ credit card details or if you realised that you have incurred losses due to being scammed, you are advised not to respond further and inform the bank immediately via our customer service hotline at 1800 66 95566 (in Singapore), +65 677 95566 (from overseas), 1800 338 5335 (for credit card, in Singapore) or +65 6338 5335 (for credit card, from overseas), and make a Police report immediately.
If you receive any suspicious emails, letters, SMSes or phone calls purportedly from Bank of China Limited, Singapore Branch, please seek verification through our customer service hotlines as listed above. Alternatively you may send us an email at enquiry.sg@bankofchina.com. Please do not respond to the suspicious email, SMS or call the telephone number listed in the suspicious text message.
If you wish to have more information on scams, please visit https://scamalert.sg/.
Bank of China Limited, Singapore Branch
28 January 2022
