The Singapore Police Force have disrupted more than 30,000 Apple iMessage accounts linked to scams since June 2026 as estimated losses reached S$2.2 million.
Losses from messages impersonating courier companies rose from S$1.2 million disclosed on 5 August.
The scams pose as companies such as Ninja Van, J&T Express and SPX Express, as well as government agencies and financial institutions.
Messages typically arrive from overseas numbers or email addresses containing random letters and numbers.
They claim there is a delivery problem or unpaid fine and direct recipients to fraudulent websites.
Some ask recipients to reply “Y” or “1”. Police believe this is an attempt to circumvent an iMessage safeguard that blocks links from unknown senders until the recipient responds.
The websites ask victims to make a small payment and enter their card or online banking details.
Scammers have used stolen one-time passwords to add cards to Apple Pay or Google Pay, register bank digital tokens on unfamiliar devices and access bank accounts.
Victims usually discover the scam after noticing unauthorised transactions.
Government agencies and courier companies do not use iMessage to communicate with the public, according to the police.
Unlike SMS, iMessage is not covered by Singapore’s network-level scam filters or SMS Sender ID Registry.
Users should enable the “Filter Unknown Senders” and “Filter Spam” settings, avoid unsolicited links and verify requests through official websites.
Anyone who discovers an unauthorised transaction should contact their bank immediately.
Featured image: Edited by Fintech News Singapore, based on images by Magnific and Apple
