SINGAPORE – While visiting a bubble tea shop in Singapore, a woman was surprised by reading a sticker on the door that encouraged customers to complete an online survey to get a free cup of milk tea. The 60-year-old scanned the QR code depicted on the sticker and downloaded an app on her Android phone to fill out the survey and claim her free cup of tea.
However, the woman woke up the next day and realized she was a victim of a scam: the app she downloaded was used by hackers to take over her phone device and $20,000 from her bank account.
Sadly, she is not the first victim of the scan: the police declared to The Straits Times that since march, there have been at least 113 victims who lost $445,000.
University student Char Shao Wen declared that she is alert whenever she scans a QR code at such shops. She adds to The Straits Times: “I drink bubble tea often, so hearing that such a scam exists is scary. And if they’re pasted near legitimate QR codes, I would imagine it will be a lot tougher to detect.”
by Federico Adacher
