KUCHING: Sarawak police have yet to receive any reports regarding the use of a new online scam trend through the installation of an android package kit (APK) file.
In this regard, Acting Sarawak Police Commissioner Datuk Mancha Ata are advising the public not to be easily fooled by dubious advertisement on social media platforms.
“Always make a detailed research into the matter before proceeding with the deal.
“Do not trust any file attachment of the APK installation that is sent directly to your smartphone by an unknown person.
“Aside from that, do not install any APK applications from untrusted sources which are high risk,” he said.
Mancha pointed out that the short message service (SMS) system’s security on one’s smartphone must be taken care of carefully as it could receive one-time password (OTP) messages from various applications belonging to phone owner.
Therefore, the public are strongly urged not to install any suspicious third party SMS applications.
Lastly, the public are to be reminded not to enter any of their banking details on any suspicious online forms.
Should there be any queries, they contact the Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) Scam Response Centre at 03-2610 1559 and 03-2610 1599 or send a Whatsapp message to the CCID Infoline at 013-211 1222 for advice or to channel information regarding online crime cases.
On Feb 10, Bukit Aman Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) director Datuk Kamarudin Md Din announced the new trend used by online scammers called the APK file.
The syndicate was identified to be advertising goods on social media platforms to pull in interested buyers.
“Once hooked, the victim (interested buyer) will contact the suspect via Whatsapp before being instructed to install the APK file on their Android phone.
“The victim will then enter his or her personal information – name, identification card, and e-mail for account registration.
“After doing so, the victim will be asked to make a payment via credit card or FPX Online Banking on the APK by entering their credit card details (payment by credit card) or username and password details (online banking),” Kamarudin said.
Once the victim presses the “Send” button, a “Page Error” alert would be displayed on the screen.
He stated that the login process is not successful because the APK installed in the victim’s phone, is not linked to a genuine banking system.
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