Operation by Anti-Scam Centre and banks helps over 11,000 people avoid losses of SGD 56 million

A joint operation by Singapore Police (*56*)’s Anti-Scam Centre and 4 partnering banks has helped over 11,000 people from falling sufferer to scams, which may have resulted in potential monetary losses of greater than SGD 56 million.

As per an official news release, SPF’s Anti-Scam Centre collaborated with 4 partnering banks and deployed know-how in a joint operation to establish job, pretend pal name and e-commerce rip-off victims.

The partnering banks are DBS Bank, UOB Bank, OCBC Bank, and Standard Chartered Bank. The use of know-how accelerated the velocity of intervention of ASC and the banks, thereby mitigating monetary losses for potential rip-off victims.

The Robotic Process Automation (RPA) know-how was used to automate info sharing and processing, whereas expeditiously reaching out to potential rip-off victims. Potential rip-off victims had been promptly notified by SMS alerts from the Police, which might alert them to the misleading schemes they had been entrenched in and stop them from making any additional financial transfers.

Many of these victims solely realised that they’d fallen prey to scams after receiving SMSs from the Police, advising them to right away stop additional financial transfers.

As per the discharge, the operation lasted for 2 months, from 1 January 2024 to 29 February 2024. During this time, ASC officers and the banks despatched greater than 15,000 SMSs to over 11,000 potential rip-off victims who’re buyer of the banks.

Four scams prevented in February

This resulted within the profitable disruption of over 2,700 ongoing scams and prevented the monetary losses.

Another official news release acknowledged that in February, the joint operation was instrumental in foiling 4 scams, which may have resulted in a loss of SGD 265,000.

The first case concerned a 71-year-old male sufferer, who was “launched to an funding alternative by his ‘pal’, who allegedly resided in Hong Kong”.

“On 7 February 2024, underneath the ‘pal’s’ directions, the sufferer tried to switch greater than S$50,000 from his SC account as cost to a fictitious provider. SC’s anti-fraud workforce detected the transfers, and the case was referred to the ASC, the place officers swiftly engaged the sufferer and efficiently satisfied the sufferer concerning the rip-off,” the discharge mentioned.

The second case concerned a 63-year-old male sufferer, who was befriended by a girl on Facebook. The girl launched him to a cryptocurrency funding scheme. “The sufferer was enticed bythe promise of fast earnings to make a number of transfers totalling greater than S$250,000 to completely different financial institution accounts. The transactions had been detected by HSBC and escalated to ASC on 15 February 2024, which promptly reached out to the sufferer, who was residing abroad and managed to dissuade him from making additional transfers. At the identical time, ASC reached out to the receiving banks and recovered greater than S$90,000,” the discharge learn.

The third and fourth instances contain a 74-year-old and a 78-year-old male sufferer, respectively.

How to stop these scams?

The SPF is asking residents to ACT in opposition to scams. ACT is the acronym for Add, Check and Tell.

ADD – ScamProtect App and safety features (e.g. allow Two-Factor Authentication (2FA), Multifactor Authentication for banks and arrange transaction limits for web banking transactions, together with PayNow).

CHECK – For rip-off indicators with official sources (e.g. ScamProtect WhatsApp bot @ https://go.gov.sg/scamshield-bot, name the Anti-Scam Helpline on 1800-722-6688, or go to www.scamalert.sg). Never set up software program from unverified sources as they might be distant entry software program permitting others to look at what you do in your system and even take management of it. Additionally, you need to by no means permit others to observe you enter your private particulars or financial institution login particulars.

TELL – Authorities, household, and buddies about scams and don’t be pressured by the caller to behave impulsively. Report the quantity to WhatsApp and Telegram to provoke in-app blocking and report any fraudulent transactions to your financial institution instantly.