Singapore to set up inter-ministry committee on online scams
SINGAPORE — A new Inter-Ministry Committee on Scams (IMCS) will be jointly established by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), the Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI) and the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI), in a bid to combat the rise of online scams.
This was announced by Senior Parliamentary Secretary of MHA Sun Xueling at the ministry’s Committee of Supply speech on Tuesday (2 March).
Members of Parliament Jessica Tan, Rahayu Mahzam, Christopher de Souza and Tan Wu Meng had asked the Home Affairs Minister about plans to mitigate the rise of scams.
Jessica Tan noted that in 2019, six out of 10 individuals who fell prey to scams in Singapore were aged between 20 and 40 years. Tan Wu Meng also cited a 53 per cent rise in scam cases, from 6,100 in 2018 to 9,500 last year. This resulted in a total of $168 million lost to scammers last year, he said.
They include the credits-for-sex scam, investment scams, love scams, and more recently, those who took advantage of the COVID-19 situation to impersonate government agents conducting contact tracing.
On Wednesday, President Halimah Yacob also lodged a police report about a phishing email purportedly inviting the email recipient to a dinner with herself, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Cabinet ministers, noted Jessica Tan.
“The Home Team has put in a lot of effort over the years to educate public, including having anti-scam programmes for the elderly… however, psychologically vulnerable people regardless of age and background continue to fall prey to scams and scammers are evolving to become more sophisticated. What is the Home Team’s strategy to mitigate the prevalence of scams?” asked Rahayu.
In response, Sun noted that the police had been enhancing efforts to disrupt scam activities, such as by setting up the Anti-Scam Centre last year to mitigate the losses of victims by timely sharing information.
The three ministries will be setting up the IMCS to step up efforts to deter potential perpetrators, limit the ability of perpetrators to conduct operations in Singapore, mitigate the losses incurred by victims and ensure the public is vigilant and wary of scams, Sun said.
The Committee will coordinate approaches and efforts across government, and pool resources, she added. The government will also work closely with businesses, including e-commerce platforms and banks, to put in place measures to limit the ability of criminals to do harm, she said.
Sun did not provide specific details on measures that the committee will put in place.
She added, “Criminals are looking to exploit people’s feelings for loved ones or other personal motivations. We urge the public to be sceptical of incredulous promises, to utilise escrow accounts provided by the platforms for transaction where possible, and to check with the authorities when approached by dubious people purporting to be government officials.”
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