Singapore Police, Banks Work Together To Prevent 1,338 Scams And Avert SGD 53 Million Losses During Sept-Oct

The Anti-Scam Centre (ASC) of the Singapore Police Force has worked together with 5 banks to foil 1,338 ongoing scams, and this collaboration has “averted potential financial losses of more than SGD 53 million”, according to a media release.

The participating financial institutions are DBS Bank, HSBC Bank, OCBC Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, and UOB Bank. They worked with law enforcement, utilising Robotic Process Automation (RPA) technology to identify victims of job, investment, fake friend call, and e-commerce scams.

The swift identification of victims enabled the police and the banks to promptly reach out to them and alert them to the scams, thereby minimising losses.

“Between 1 September and 31 October 2024, the ASC officers and participating banks sent over 9,000 SMS messages to more than 6,700 bank customers identified as potential scam victims. The detection of these potential scam victims resulted in the successful disruption of over 1,338 ongoing scams and averted potential financial losses of more than $53 million,” said the release.

How does RPA technology prevent scams?

“The adoption of RPA technology streamlined the sharing and processing of information, enabling the police to swiftly reach out to potential scam victims through SMSes,” said the release.

“The SMS alerts notified the potential scam victims to the suspicious transfers [that] the scammers had instructed them to perform, and advised them against effecting further transfers. Upon receiving the SMSes, most victims would realise that they had fallen prey to a scam and would come forward to lodge a police report,” it added.

The Singapore Police Force has urged members of the public to “ACT” against scams. ACT stands for: Add security features; Check for signs; and Tell the authorities and others about scams.

● ADD – Add security features such as the ‘ScamShield’ application and two-factor authentication for personal accounts, such as banks, social media, and Singpass accounts. Transaction limits for Internet banking, including PayNow, could also be set up to limit the amount of funds that can be lost in the event of a scam.

● CHECK – Check for potential signs of a scam by asking questions, fact-checking requests for personal information and money transfers, and verifying the legitimacy of online listings and reviews. Take the time to pause and check. If it is too good to be true, it is probably untrue, and a scam.

● TELL – Tell the authorities and others about scam encounters by reporting to the bank, ScamShield, or by filing a police report. Tell others about common scams and the preventive steps they can take. Report the fraudulent pages and/or monikers to the respective platforms.

For more information on scams, members of the public can visit www.scamshield.gov.sg or call the ScamShield Helpline at 1799. Anyone with information on such scams may call the Police Hotline at 1800-255-0000 or submit information online at www.police.gov.sg/i-witness. All information will be kept strictly confidential.

(The article is published under a mutual content partnership arrangement between The Free Press Journal and Connected To India)