The Ministry of Transport (MOT) reminded commuters on Friday that it never contacts the public through Telegram to distribute public transport vouchers, after the Singapore Police Force documented a resurgence of account takeovers linked to fake voucher infographics.
Victims receive Telegram messages carrying graphics that mimic official transport assistance schemes. The messages include links to pages that ask for names, mobile numbers, NRIC details and a Telegram one-time password. Handing over the OTP lets scammers seize the account and blast similar links to contact lists or pull victims into investment chat groups.
How the compromise spreads
Police said users often discover the hijack only when friends report strange messages or when unfamiliar groups appear in their chat history. Unlike PayNow scams that drain bank balances in minutes, Telegram takeovers weaponise trust networks: a compromised account looks like a friend forwarding a voucher.
MOT's clarification aligns with earlier advisories: legitimate concession and voucher updates publish on its website and authorised social media accounts. Commuters should enable Telegram two-step verification and refuse to share OTPs with any third party, including pages that mimic government branding.
Overlap with broader scam drills
The reminder lands as GovTech's Open Government Products unit scales its Scam Vaccine simulations, which send benign phishing drills to volunteers. Real voucher scams, by contrast, arrive without warning and can escalate quickly when contacts trust a hijacked profile.
Police urge victims to report compromised accounts through the ScamShield app and to warn contacts not to click forwarded links. Where financial losses occur through follow-on investment pitches, reports should go to the Anti-Scam Command channels as well.
Practical checks before you tap
Compare any voucher graphic against MOT's official pages rather than reverse-image searching Telegram forwards. Watch for shortened URLs and pages that demand NRIC numbers for perks that never required them in past schemes.
Public transport operators LTA and SMRT also do not distribute vouchers through personal messages. If a deal promises free rides for sharing an OTP, treat it as account takeover bait — not a fare promotion.
Reporting and recovery steps
Telegram's in-app support channel can help recover hijacked accounts if victims act before scammers enable two-step verification on the stolen profile. Police advise screenshotting fraudulent pages before they disappear, attaching those files to e-Reports on the SPF website.
Transport operators said genuine assistance schemes during past Budget cycles always required application through official portals with Singpass login, never through messaging-app OTP forms. Commuters who already clicked a suspicious link should reset passwords on banking apps even if no transfer occurred, because follow-on social engineering often arrives days later.
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