Measures to Tackle Scam Crimes

13 Mr Ang Wei Neng asked the Minister for Home Affairs (a) what has been the trend of scam crimes in the past 10 years; and (b) what is the Police's strategy to reduce such scam crimes.

The Minister of State for Home Affairs (Mr Desmond Tan) (for the Minister for Home Affairs): The Police started to track the number and types of scams from 2016 when it started to become a crime of concern. Since then, the number of scams reported has increased by 77%, from 5,383 cases in 2016 to 9,545 cases in 2019. There were 10,402 cases of scam reported in the first eight months of this year, which is a 100% increase over the 5,229 cases reported during the same period last year.

In terms of the total amount lost, it has also risen over the past years, from $89.7 million in 2016 to $170.8 million in 2019. In the first eight months of this year, the total amount cheated increased by almost 71% to $157 million, from $92 million in the same period in 2019.

The Member asked about what the Singapore Police Force is doing about this. MHA adopts a multi-pronged approach to tackle scams. First, strengthening enforcement. The Police have set up specialised units to disrupt scammers’ operations. One of these units is the E-Commerce Fraud Enforcement and Coordination Team or E-FECT in short. Since its formation in November 2018, the E-FECT has arrested 101 e-commerce scammers and solved about 2,000 e-commerce scams. In June 2019, the Police set up the Anti-Scam Centre or ASC, which acts as a nerve centre for investigations into scam-related crimes. The ASC’s focus is to mitigate victims’ losses, through the swift interdiction of the proceeds of the crime. In its first year of operation, the ASC froze more than 6,100 bank accounts and recovered more than S$21.2 million.

Second, the Police have stepped up collaboration with foreign law enforcement agencies. The Police set up the Transnational Commercial Crime Task Force or TCTF in short, in October 2017 to investigate transnational scams such as China Officials Impersonation Scams, Internet Love Scams and Credit-for-Sex Scams. We have seen good results since. To date, the TCTF has conducted 12 joint operations with international counterparts, resulting in the arrests of over 120 suspects. Let me cite two examples.

First, in November 2019, the TCTF worked with the Royal Malaysia Police, Hong Kong Police Force and the Macau Judiciary Police to jointly cripple an Internet Love Scam syndicate based in Malaysia. The group is believed to have been involved in at least 139 cases in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Macau, involving losses of about S$5.8 million.

Second, in May 2019, the TCTF successfully extradited two Nigerian men to Singapore for cheating Singapore-based victims in Internet Love Scams perpetrated from Malaysia.

The two accused persons were charged in court in May 2019, and the trial is still on-going.

Third, we work closely with public and private sector stakeholders. The Police regularly engage banks, remittance agencies and convenience stores to train their frontline staff to spot possible scam victims. In 2019, the Police commended 108 recipients from the community for preventing 91 instances of scams involving approximately S$5 million. Earlier this year, the Inter-Ministry Committee on Scams was set up to coordinate a whole-of-Government effort to combat scams and their roles include (a) to improve scam detection and disruption capabilities; (b) to develop measures to secure the digital space; (c) to enhance the loss recovery and remediation experience for scam victims; and (iv) to improve public education and outreach efforts against scams.

Fourth is public education. The Police and the National Crime Prevention Council have disseminated advisories through various media platforms, including messaging and social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. In August 2020, an anti-scam public education campaign, "Spot the Signs. Stop the Crimes", was launched. This new campaign focuses on sharing real-life scam examples to educate and inform the public on how to spot the tell-tale signs of various scams.

Indeed, the key to fight against scams is a discerning public. They are urged to stay vigilant and report possible scams promptly to the Police.

Mr Ang Wei Neng (West Coast): Mr Speaker, I thank the Minister of State for the comprehensive reply. I have a few supplementary questions.

First, I heard a few types of scams mentioned by the Minister of State. Can the Minister of State advise us which is the most common scam and which is the one that has the biggest monetary loss in Singapore?

I understand that five major crimes which are often communicated to the communities have dropped significantly over the years, and the number of online scams has overtaken the five crimes. So, will the Minister of State consider providing the number or type of online crimes by constituency, on a monthly basis, so as to better alert the residents and garner their support to fight and prevent online scams.

Thirdly, I often receive WhatsApp messages asking me to take personal loans from moneylenders. I think it is mostly the works of the illegal moneylenders. I also receive phone calls to tell me that I have a parcel stuck at the custom and mostly this is a fraud case. I understand many Singaporeans also receive similar messages. Can the Police advise Singaporeans what to do when they receive such messages or phone calls? Can the Police consider setting up a hotline or an email account for Singaporeans to send such messages and details of the phone calls to the Police?

Mr Desmond Tan: I thank the Member for the question. The first question with regard to the most popular scam crimes that we have tracked, the top three, in terms of number of incidents that has happened, will be first is the e-commerce scam. We can all understand why. With the prevalence of Internet and the e-commerce platform, this has become the number one, the most common scam that we see in our community.

The second one is social media, impersonation scam. The third one will be loan scam. These are in terms of the number of incidents that happened. If you would like to see more in terms of the top 10, you can go to our anti-scam website. We have listed the most common scams that have happened.

In terms of the amount, the highest levels of investment or financial losses will be for those related to investment scams.

The Member also asked in terms of breaking down online scams by constituency. I do not have the data right now. We will take it back. We have to bear in mind that online scams represent a very challenging area to deal with, in terms of how we look at the trans-borderless nature of this crime, as well as how anonymous some of these crime scammers can go about doing its operation. So, I am not so sure how this breakdown will help but we will certainly take a look at the Member's suggestions on how to break down the data. If it is useful, we will do that as well.

Finally, the Member talked about how the Police can allow our residents and our people to have a one-stop way to seek help when they need help, so I would like to inform Members of the House that the Anti-Scam Centre was set up for this purpose. Working with National Crime Prevention Council, since several years ago, we have already set up a hotline. This hotline is 1800-722-6688. Any member of the public who needs help, who is not sure, who needs advice on whether that is a scam, they can go to the hotline.

On top of that, we have also set up the scamalert.sg, which is a URL that allows members of the public to see what are the most common scams that have happened and also for members of the public to share their stories about how they have fallen prey to scams.

So, these are the efforts that we will continue to step up, in time to come.

Mr Ang Wei Neng: I thank the Minister of State for the reply. I just want to make two small clarifications about what I said. Firstly, we know that the Police communicated to the communities what are the five major crimes, very often, on a monthly basis, and engage the residents. So, I am suggesting that the Police can do the same for the number of online scams by constituency and let the residents know that these are the online crimes that happened in their neighbourhood, where their neighbour are victims, so that they are more aware, and they can help the Police to fight the online crime together.

The second one, I mentioned that we often receive a lot of messages. Is there some way or can we set up a website, and we can send those phone calls and messages to that one site, rather than just making phone call which is sometimes, not efficient because you need people to man the hotline.

Mr Desmond Tan: I thank the Member for the clarification of the question. As I had mentioned, we will take his suggestions. Today, the Police work closely with the community to also highlight what are the top five crimes in the community. Scam is obviously one of those that are increasing in trend. So, we will take the Member's suggestions in mind.

The second one with regard to the website and a one-stop station for residents to post and also to submit the scam situation, as I had mentioned, the scamalert.sg would probably serve that purpose.

Ms Poh Li San (Sembawang): Thank you, Mr Speaker, Sir. I thank Minister of State Desmond Tan for his clarifications. May I ask Minister of State Desmond Tan what are the preventative strategies to protect specifically seniors from Internet scams, given the on-going efforts to increase the digital literacy amongst our seniors.

Mr Desmond Tan: Indeed, the Member has highlighted a vulnerable group. We are also mindful that they are quite prone to scams. The Police and MHA have started, in terms of our public education, to be more targeted and focused on specific targets that are prone to certain different kinds of scams.

So, for the seniors group, other than the mainstream media, we also work very closely with the community networks through their events, through their house visits including the Agency for Integrated Care, to make sure that some of these messages are communicated to them. We also work with IMDA, in terms of the Seniors Go Digital Programme, to try and see whether we can highlight, in the process of teaching them how to use the smartphone, to be more mindful of the risk and the threat that can come their way.

So, these are the efforts that we are working on and we will continue to make sure that our seniors are protected in cyberspace. They are an important group for us.