Parents in Singapore are being warned about a new WhatsApp scam in which criminals hijack students’ accounts and impersonate them to solicit payments for fake youth exchange programmes and artificial intelligence courses.
Police said they have received at least eight reports since September, with victims losing about S$18,000 in total. Scammers reportedly accessed students’ WhatsApp accounts before contacting their parents and claiming that their children had been selected for educational programmes.
To make the requests appear legitimate, the scammers provided consent forms displaying the names and logos of educational institutions and government agencies. Parents were also sent PayNow QR codes and instructed to make payments to secure their children’s places.
In some cases, victims were told that programme fees were subsidised and would later be refunded. Others were persuaded to make additional payments after scammers claimed that their initial transactions had been processed incorrectly.
The deception often continued until parents checked directly with their children or received alerts from their banks, at which point they discovered that the messages had not come from their children.
Police are urging parents to verify unexpected payment requests directly with their children and independently confirm any youth programme or course with the relevant school or institution through official channels before transferring money. They can also contact Singapore’s 24-hour ScamShield Helpline at 1799.
The latest scam highlights how compromised messaging accounts can make fraudulent requests appear to come from trusted family members. Earlier police advisories have similarly warned that scammers can gain control of WhatsApp accounts through deceptive links, QR codes and requests for one-time passwords, allowing them to contact victims’ friends and relatives.
