Police warn of scam calls in HDC’s name

Police issued an advisory on Wednesday, warning of calls being made by scammers pretending to be from the Housing Development Corporation (HDC), stealing large amounts of money. 

According to police, the scammers are calling members of the general public pretending to be from the HDC to inform them they had been selected for a housing scheme. 

The scammers tell the victims they had received a certain number of points, and were just a few points short of confirming a flat. They ask for their email to submit documents to review the points. 

When victims send their email, the scammers send an email with a list in HDC’s name. And they tell victims that email access is required to add points on the list. They gain access to the email account, stating they need to approve notifications sent to phone or other devices in order to grant access to the email account. And they gain access to the email account, use internet banking via the email account, and transfer the money in the victims’ bank accounts to the bank account of the scammers. 

Police said a number of such cases had been reported to the authorities. 

Police appealed to the public to be on alert for such scams, and not to share important information such as OTPs with anyone else.