CONGRATULATIONS! You win $5,000 from SingTel.

This was the SMS sent out to some SingTel Mobile phone customers this week.

Unfortunately, the SMS was bogus.

SingTel is the latest victim of messages falsely claiming to be from reputable companies.

The telco has filed a police report.

The New Paper understands that the bogus SMS asked those who received it to call a 'SingTel centre'.

But the number provided is believed to be that of a handphone user in Indonesia. It is not clear what the sender's motive is.

In the past, phone cheats from abroad have managed to convince unsuspecting people here to transfer money into overseas bank accounts.

The sender could also be 'smishing' - the handphone version of phishing, in which consumers receive e-mails, supposedly from established institutions like banks, asking them to reveal their personal particulars.

The police reported last December that Singaporeans had lost more than$300,000 in phone scams in justfour months.

SingTel is advising its customers to ignore all such SMSes.

In particular, 'customers should avoid releasing their personal particulars to any unfamiliar parties', a spokesman said an e-mail.

She said winners of SingTel contests are informed by post, phone or through the newspapers - and not by SMS.

AT LEAST 10 RECIPIENTS DAILY

It is believed that since Monday, SingTel has received 10to 20 such complaints every day.

They are believed to be mainly pre-paid card customers, many of whom are foreign workers.

Some called SingTel's customer service and others went to SingTel dealers to claim their 'prize'.

Customers of other major companies have also been targeted in such scams.

In 2003, a scam e-mail targeted Citibank customers here and overseas by linking them to a website resembling Citibank's where they were asked to give their credit card and ATM numbers.

In the same year, a fake DBS website targeted the bank's Hong Kong customers. DBS said none of its customers fell for the con.

In 2005, some Singaporeans received a fake SMS informing them that they had won a $130,000 lottery by Hua Tai Group, a large state-owned paper manufacturer in China.

Those who responded were told they had to first wire $3,900 to China to settle 'government taxes'.

This article was first published in The New Paper on June 28, 2008.