Singapore blocks fake news sites promoting gambling scams

Several websites had links to fake gambling sites.

Singapore.- Authorities have blocked several fake news websites that contained links to fake gambling sites used to scam people into revealing personal and bank account details. The sites were designed to look like such as The Straits Times, Lianhe Zaobao and CNA and had domains such as zaobao-now.com or channelasianews.com.

The sites claimed that readers could win thousands of dollars by placing bets on “trusted” gambling sites. They were blocked after being identified through the use of the Online Cybersquat Hunter (OCH) tool, which scans two million sites daily using artificial intelligence with image and text analytics. 

 Attempts to access the sites now are met with a warning from the police that they are suspected scam websites. 

Scams are a major concern in Singapore, with over 31,000 cases reported in 2022 and at least $660.7m lost. Phishing scams were the most prevalent, with more than 7,000 reported cases, according to The Straits Times.

Earlier this week, police reported that at least 55 people have fallen victim to a lottery scam purportedly run by religious figures. The scammers target their victims through unsolicited messages on WhatsApp or other social media platforms.

In these messages, the scammers pose as religious figures or claimed to be affiliated with religious groups. They then ask the victims if they wanted to be blessed with wealth.

Once the victim agrees, the scammers offer to buy lottery numbers for them and then inform them that they had won. The victims are then asked to transfer a sum of money or pay various administrative fees before they can receive their winnings. The scammers repeatedly delay the transfer of the winnings and eventually disappeared.