Singapore
Singapore
Two 16-year-olds were arrested during a two-week anti-scam enforcement operation.
Two 16-year-old teenagers were among 18 people arrested for their suspected involvement in banking-related malware scams. (Photos: SPF)
SINGAPORE: Two 16-year-old boys were among 18 people arrested during a two-week enforcement operation for their suspected involvement in a recent string of banking-related malware scams.
The other suspects are aged between 17 and 47, said the police on Saturday (Oct 7).
Eleven other people, including two 16-year-old girls, are assisting with investigations. 
Preliminary investigations revealed that most of the 18 suspects, including the 16-year-olds, had allegedly facilitated the scams by relinquishing their bank accounts and Internet banking credentials or disclosing their Singpass credentials for monetary gain.
The 17-year-old is believed to have assisted his friends in selling their bank accounts to an unknown person on Telegram.
A 45-year-old man is believed to have withdrawn money from a money mule’s bank account and handed it to an unknown person.
The police said investigations are ongoing.
Those found guilty of acquiring benefits from criminal conduct may be jailed for up to 10 years, fined up to S$500,000, or both.
For deceiving banks into opening accounts not meant for their own use and relinquishing account log-in details, offenders face a three-year jail term, a fine, or both under the Penal Code. They may also face charges under the Computer Misuse Act.
For disclosing their Singpass credentials, offenders may face up to three years’ jail, a fine of up to S$10,000 or both.
The police noted that cases of malware being used to compromise Android mobile devices have been on the rise since January.
Unauthorised transactions were then made from the victims’ bank accounts even though they did not reveal their internet banking credentials, one-time passwords or Singpass credentials to anyone.
In such cases, the victims responded to advertisements – such as cleaning services and food items – on social media platforms like Facebook and were instructed by scammers to download Android Package Kit from non-official app stores to facilitate the purchases, leading to malware being installed on the victims’ mobile devices. 
Scammers then convince the victims via phone calls or text messages to turn on accessibility services on their Android phones, which weakens the phones’ security and allows scammers to take full control of them.
“As a result, the scammers could log every keystroke, steal banking credentials stored on the phones, remotely log access victims’ banking apps, add money mules as payees, raise payment limits and transfer money to money mules,” said the police.
The scammers can also further delete SMS and email notifications of the bank transfers to cover their tracks.
The police advised the public to not click on suspicious links, scan unknown QR codes or download mobile apps from third-party websites.
“These unverified apps may contain malware, which can severely compromise the security of mobile devices,” said the police.
“Before downloading any app, check the number of downloads and user reviews. Always be wary of any requests for Singpass and banking credentials or money transfers and attractive offers that sound too good to be true.”
They added that people are reminded to download apps from official app stores and are advised to turn on security settings to protect their devices.
On Thursday, the police said that about S$1.2 million was lost to Android malware scams involving advertisements for travel packages on social media platforms in September, with at least 43 victims falling prey to such scams.
An advisory was also issued by the police on Sep 20 about a new variant of Android malware scams, where scammers would initiate a factory reset on infected devices after the malware executes unauthorised transactions on the phone’s i-banking app. At least S$10 million was lost, with more than 750 cases of victims falling prey to such scams.
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