GOVERNMENT housing programmes are a beacon of hope for many seeking affordable homes.
Unfortunately, where there is a public good, there are often opportunistic criminals looking to exploit it for personal gain.
Is it true that scammers are using a fake advertisement for a government programme to hijack people’s Telegram accounts?
Verdict:
TRUE
The police have advised the public to be cautious of a phishing attempt by a scam syndicate using a fake Rumah Mesra Rakyat 2025 programme advertisement on social media to hijiack Telegram accounts.
Bukit Aman Commercial Crimes Investigation Department director Datuk Rusdi Mohd Isa said the syndicate is believed to be hijacking Telegram accounts to be used for cybercrime such as impersonation, extortion and online scams.
Based on monitoring, they have identified a TikTok account with the user name ‘buana.binti.abdul’ that is actively promoting the programme by displaying a link directed to a foreign website.
“The suspicious link points to a domain that is not an official Malaysian government domain,” he said in a statement on Tuesday (Sept 23).
According to him, the fake website will ask the victim to fill up personal details such as their full name and telephone number and then to key in an OTP code sent to the phone number that will then reveal the Telegram account password.
Even though there has yet to be any police report received linked to this scam, the public is advised not to click the link or to provide any personal details to unofficial websites as a precaution, he added.
Source:
Bernama
