A joint operation by Singapore Police Force’s Anti-Scam Centre and four partnering banks has helped over 11,000 people from falling victim to scams, which could have resulted in potential financial losses of more than SGD 56 million.
As per an official news release, SPF’s Anti-Scam Centre collaborated with four partnering banks and deployed technology in a joint operation to identify job, fake friend call and e-commerce scam victims.
The partnering banks are DBS Bank, UOB Bank, OCBC Bank, and Standard Chartered Bank. The use of technology accelerated the speed of intervention of ASC and the banks, thereby mitigating financial losses for potential scam victims.
The Robotic Process Automation (RPA) technology was used to automate information sharing and processing, while expeditiously reaching out to potential scam victims. Potential scam victims were promptly notified through SMS alerts from the Police, which would alert them to the deceptive schemes they were entrenched in and prevent them from making any further monetary transfers.
Many of these victims only realised that they had fallen prey to scams after receiving SMSs from the Police, advising them to immediately cease further monetary transfers.
As per the release, the operation lasted for two months, from 1 January 2024 to 29 February 2024. During this time, ASC officers and the banks sent more than 15,000 SMSs to over 11,000 potential scam victims who are customer of the banks.
Four scams prevented in February
This resulted in the successful disruption of over 2,700 ongoing scams and prevented the financial losses.
Another official news release stated that in February, the joint operation was instrumental in foiling four scams, which could have resulted in a loss of SGD 265,000.
The first case involved a 71-year-old male victim, who was “introduced to an investment opportunity by his ‘friend’, who allegedly resided in Hong Kong”.
“On 7 February 2024, under the ‘friend’s’ instructions, the victim attempted to transfer more than S$50,000 from his SC account as payment to a fictitious supplier. SC’s anti-fraud team detected the transfers, and the case was referred to the ASC, where officers swiftly engaged the victim and successfully convinced the victim about the scam,” the release said.
The second case involved a 63-year-old male victim, who was befriended by a woman on Facebook. The woman introduced him to a cryptocurrency investment scheme. “The victim was enticed bythe promise of quick profits to make several transfers totalling more than S$250,000 to different bank accounts. The transactions were detected by HSBC and escalated to ASC on 15 February 2024, which promptly reached out to the victim, who was residing overseas and managed to dissuade him from making further transfers. At the same time, ASC reached out to the receiving banks and recovered more than S$90,000,” the release read.
The third and fourth cases involve a 74-year-old and a 78-year-old male victim, respectively.
How to prevent these scams?
The SPF is asking citizens to ACT against scams. ACT is the acronym for Add, Check and Tell.
ADD – ScamShield App and security features (e.g. enable Two-Factor Authentication (2FA), Multifactor Authentication for banks and set up transaction limits for internet banking transactions, including PayNow).
CHECK – For scam signs with official sources (e.g. ScamShield WhatsApp bot @ https://go.gov.sg/scamshield-bot, call the Anti-Scam Helpline on 1800-722-6688, or visit www.scamalert.sg). Never install software from unverified sources as they may be remote access software allowing others to observe what you do on your device or even take control of it. Additionally, you should never allow others to watch you enter your personal particulars or bank login details.
TELL – Authorities, family, and friends about scams and do not be pressured by the caller to act impulsively. Report the number to WhatsApp and Telegram to initiate in-app blocking and report any fraudulent transactions to your bank immediately.