More than 500 fake websites impersonating MHA, Home Team agencies taken down
Investigations so far showed no evidence that the fake websites were used to perpetrate scams or phish for information from members of the public, the ministry said on Wednesday (Aug 12).
The Ministry of Home Affairs logo. (Photo: CNA/Raydza Rahman)
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SINGAPORE: More than 500 fake websites impersonating the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and seven Home Team agencies have been taken down, the ministry said on Wednesday (Aug 12).
The websites were detected by the Home Team Science and Technology Agency (HTX) on Aug 10, and all identified sites were taken down by the following day, MHA said in a Facebook post.
The fake websites impersonated MHA, as well as the Singapore Police Force, Central Narcotics Bureau, Singapore Civil Defence Force, Immigration and Checkpoints Authority, Singapore Prison Service, HTX and the Home Team Academy.
They replicated the official branding and publicly available content from the websites of MHA and the affected agencies, potentially misleading members of the public into believing they were accessing official government websites.
However, based on investigations so far, there is no evidence that the fake websites were used to perpetrate scams or phish for information from members of the public, MHA said.
There is also no evidence that MHA or Home Team agencies’ systems were compromised or accessed without authorisation, the ministry added.
"Members of the public are advised to remain vigilant when accessing websites purporting to belong to MHA or Home Team agencies," MHA said.
Official Singapore government websites end with ".gov.sg", and members of the public should check website addresses carefully before providing personal or sensitive information.
They should also look out for unusual website addresses, spelling or grammatical errors, poor-quality images, broken links, or pages and functions that do not work as expected.
Those who encounter any suspicious websites purporting to be official MHA or Home Team agency sites should report them to the police via the ScamShield Helpline or through the i-Witness portal, the ministry said.
"MHA will continue to monitor the situation closely and work with the relevant agencies and partners to identify and take appropriate action against any websites that impersonate MHA or Home Team agencies," the ministry said.
