Dog owners across Singapore must have been flummoxed when they received a letter purportedly sent by the Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA) reminding them to pay $90 to renew their dog license.
AVA has come out to assert that no, they did not send letters of such kind to dog owners.
Many would have fallen for the scam really — the contents of the letter were worded and arranged in typical government-y manner. The phishing scam directs them to make their payments to a fraudulent AVA PayPal payment gateway, which would have given the scammers access to private details.
The letters hark back to the phishing emails circulating in August, which directs recipients to a fake AVA Facebook page claiming to be a new online portal for dog license renewals. The same flat fee of $90 is demanded, even though current owners of sterilised dogs only have to pay a maximum of $15 for their annual dog licence fees. Only owners of unsterilised dogs will have to pay a maximum of $90 in dog licence fees.
“We are working with the Singapore Police Force in their investigations into this matter,” writes AVA in a news release. “The police advise recipients of the scam letter to make a police report”.
Stay frosty folks, it’s a dog eat dog world out there.
Photo: Kris Carillo via Flickr
