{"id":15921,"date":"2025-04-07T12:34:08","date_gmt":"2025-04-07T04:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/aa-highway.com.sg\/?p=15921"},"modified":"2025-04-07T12:34:08","modified_gmt":"2025-04-07T04:34:08","slug":"thwarting-phishing-expeditions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/aa-highway.com.sg\/thwarting-phishing-expeditions\/","title":{"rendered":"Thwarting Phishing Expeditions"},"content":{"rendered":"
How to recognise scam emails and prevent yourself and your loved ones from getting phished.<\/strong><\/h5>\n

The Automobile Association of Singapore (AA Singapore) has been made aware of some phishing emails ostensibly sent by the Association to members and non-members alike. These emails may offer recipients a chance to win or purchase at a discount a car emergency kit; they may also invite recipients to participate in a survey about their experience with the Association. An example of this can be seen here:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The senders\u2019 email addresses vary and may sometimes look similar to, but they do not match the Association\u2019s domain, which always end in \u2018@aas.com.sg\u2019.<\/p>\n

What to do if you receive such emails<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The Association urges members to play their part in protecting themselves from these email scams.<\/p>\n

One basic steps is for members to check the email address of the sender. To do this, click on or hover your mouse over the sender\u2019s name. If the email originated from the Association, the email address should end with \u2018@aas.com.sg\u2019.<\/p>\n

Any email claiming to be from the Association with a different domain name is a scam; do not click on anything in the email \u2014 neither the body text nor attachments \u2014 and delete it immediately. If you have entered your credit card details into any associated links, inform your bank immediately and seek assistance.<\/p>\n

If you are ever unsure of the legitimacy of a communication from the Association, do not hesitate to contact us at aasmail@aas.com.sg<\/a><\/span><\/strong> for verification \u2014 AA Singapore will never ask for sensitive information (credit card number, password, etc) or offer unsolicited gifts in this manner.<\/p>\n

As\u00a0members may be receiving phishing emails from a wide variety of scammers, not just those who claim to be from AA Singapore, here are the typical characteristics that a scam email may display. Do note that such emails may contain combinations of these characteristics.<\/p>\n

Mismatched \/ Misleading information\"\"<\/strong><\/h3>\n

If there is a mismatch between the domain name of the sender\u2019s email address and the organisation the sender claims to be from, delete the email. For example, genuine emails from organisations usually have domain names that have the respective organisations\u2019 name or initials in the domain name. Be very careful when the email addresses end with a generic \u2018@yahoo.com\u2019 or \u2018@gmail.com\u2019.<\/p>\n

Be wary of letter substitutions to make the domain name look legitimate. For example, instead of \u2018AA\u2019 or \u2018AAS\u2019, the scammer could use \u2018Aa\u2019 or even \u2018Automobile Association\u2019. This applies to websites (check their URLs), too, no matter how closely they resemble the authentic websites.<\/p>\n

Urgent \/ Threatening language\"\"<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Be suspicious if the email contains phrases such as \u201curgent action required\u201d or \u201cyour account will be terminated\u201d. Such wordings are meant to make you panic, and pressure you into replying quickly with confidential information. If you have good reason to believe it is a scam, delete the email immediately.<\/p>\n

Alternatively, before deleting the email, call the sender on a publicly available number (do not use the contact details given in the email as the scammers could have personnel impersonating staff from the sending organisation) to verify that the email is authentic.<\/p>\n

Attractive rewards\"\"<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Instead of using threatening phrases, scammers sometimes go to the other extreme, offering amazing deals or valuable prizes \u2014 all you need to do is to click on a pop-up or complete an email survey to win! This is another attempt to encourage you to act immediately. Remember that old saying, \u201cIf it sounds too good to be true, it probably is\u201d? It applies to this type of phishing emails \u2014 always.<\/p>\n

If you wish to give such an email the benefit of the doubt, then verify by contacting the sender (again, do not use contact details provided in the email, but use those that are publicly available, eg on the organisation\u2019s website).<\/p>\n

Confidential information required\"\"<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Responsible organisations will never ask for your personal information (NRIC, login credentials, credit card details, etc) via email. Scammers can pretend to be from government organisations (SP, IRS, ICA, CPF, etc) or financial institutions (banks, credit unions, etc), and request for such information via email. While receiving an email from such authoritative organisations may make you feel like you need to reply promptly, you should be very suspicious if you get an email from your \u2018bank\u2019 requesting private information.<\/p>\n

If you wish to show deference to such important organisations, then contact them directly to clarify (again, do not to use the contact details provided in the email).<\/p>\n

Unexpected emails\"\"<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Scammers often test their luck by sending broadcast emails to large groups of people, hoping that someone vulnerable to such phishing expeditions falls for their ruse. So if you receive an email that is unexpected \u2014 for example, the email contains an invoice for an item you know you did not buy \u2014 do not click on the links and attachments, and delete the email immediately.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, if you wish to verify, follow the method described above.<\/p>\n

Suspicious attachments\"\"<\/strong><\/h3>\n

In this day and age, it is almost an automatic response to click open an email attachment. Do curb this instinct and exercise caution instead \u2014 emails sent by scammers often include attachments that, when clicked, infect your device with malware that steals your data.<\/p>\n

Look out for suspicious attachment names and file types. If the attachment is unfamiliar to you, or uses an uncommon file type such as .exe, delete the email.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How to recognise scam emails and prevent yourself and your loved ones from getting phished. The Automobile Association of Singapore (AA Singapore) has been made aware of some phishing emails ostensibly sent by the Association to members and non-members alike. These emails may offer recipients a chance to win or purchase at a discount a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15924,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1523,156,10982,10981,10977,10980,10978,10979],"class_list":{"0":"post-15921","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-living","8":"tag-aa-highway","9":"tag-aa-singapore","10":"tag-automatic-response","11":"tag-broadcast-emails","12":"tag-offer-unsolicited-gifts","13":"tag-responsible-organisations","14":"tag-senders-email-address","15":"tag-threatening-phrases"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/aa-highway.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/aa-highway.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/aa-highway.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/aa-highway.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/aa-highway.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15921"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/aa-highway.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15921\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15929,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/aa-highway.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15921\/revisions\/15929"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/aa-highway.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/aa-highway.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/aa-highway.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/aa-highway.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}