A part-time bakery worker lost over US$81,000 (S$110,960) to scammers who siphoned money from her two DBS bank accounts after infecting her Android phone with malware.
Ms Lie, 52, had on Sept 10 chanced upon a Facebook advertisement for a $28 durian day-tour ticket to Kulai, Malaysia, from a tour agency called “GD Travel & Tour”.
She was attracted by the offer as she had enjoyed a durian tour in 2022 and contacted the seller on Facebook.
The seller texted Ms Lie on WhatsApp and instructed her through voice messages to download a third-party app called EG Store on her phone to browse the tour offers.
“I wasn’t suspicious of him. He had a strong Malaysian accent and sounded very sincere. He was patient and helpful with my questions about the tour so I believed him,” she told The Straits Times.
Ms Lie eventually did not buy the tour ticket as her friends did not want to go. She did not provide him with her banking details or address.
She did not think much about the incident until a week later when she was trying to pay her credit card bills. She noticed that she could not log into her Internet banking app after multiple attempts.
https://www.straitstimes.com/singap...ing-third-party-app-to-buy-durian-tour-ticket
