SPF: Anti-Scam Public Education in Singapore 2023 PDF

SPF Hello everyone, Livia here, a police psychologist. On behalf of the Scam Public Education Office, I will cover our approach to anti-scam public education efforts via our local campaign, I Can Act Against Scams. Scams continue to be a key concern for Singapore. We are seeing an eight-year climb...

SPF Hello everyone, Livia here, a police psychologist. On behalf of the Scam Public Education Office, I will cover our approach to anti-scam public education efforts via our local campaign, I Can Act Against Scams. Scams continue to be a key concern for Singapore. We are seeing an eight-year climb in scam figures since the police began tracking scams in 2016. The total number of scam cases in Singapore rose from 31,728 in 2022 to 46,563 in 2023, a 46.8% increase with an overall financial loss of $651.8 million attributed to scams. The infographic on the left shows you the top 10 scams of concern in Singapore with the top being job scams, e-commerce scams, fake friend call scams, phishing scams and investment scams. These top 5 scams make up 85.5% of the top 10 scam types reported in 2023. The infographic on the right shows you that the bulk of which was money lost through investment scams standing at 31.4%. One possible explanation for Singapore's attractiveness as a target for scammers is our high internet exposure and connectivity levels. The 2023 IMDA Digital Society Report revealed 99% of households in Singapore are connected to the internet, 97% of residents have smartphones and 93% regularly enjoy the convenience afforded by digital technology. The convenience to engage in many innocuous activities online, such as communicating with others, e-commerce, banking etc. are also those targeted by scammers which makes us at risk to encountering and being a target of scams. Some of us may think that we might not be the typical profile of victims targeted by scammers, a common stereotype being the elderly. There are some of us who think that they would never fall prey and or are not concerned about scams or that we feel overconfident after becoming familiar with navigating the online space and having avoided falling prey to scams to date. It is clear from the statistics shown here that everyone is vulnerable to scams, albeit to different types. As you can see from the right on the breakdown of the contact methods, the top three in the first half of 2023 were social media messaging platforms, more specifically both WhatsApp and Telegram and phone calls in that order. Both phone calls and messaging platforms remain popular contact methods for scammers. So why exactly do people fall prey to scams? Scam scenarios are skillfully designed to catch victims off guard and exploit moments when our defences are down. It is well established that two systems facilitate our decision making. The first system, System 1, is automatic and happens subconsciously at times, just like how you travel to work or school every day. System 2, however, is slow, deliberate and analytical, just like when we do cost-benefit analysis. Scammers create strong emotions, for example fear and excitement, and use persuasion tactics to activate System 1 and induce compliance. There are also individual factors at play that reinforces our vulnerability to scams, which includes your mindset or attitudes towards scams. Examples include a lack of concern about scams, complacency and or overconfidence. Certain aspects of the human personality, such as your level of impulsivity and suggestibility and what stresses you are facing in your life, for example loneliness and loss of employment, can also contribute to that vulnerability. That said, it should be noted that anyone can fall prey to scams. We have seen in Slide 5 that people of all ages fall prey a bit to different types of scams. Given that scams are ever-evolving and pervasive, and scammers target our human vulnerabilities and use our own emotions and desires, like fear and greed against us, our familiarity with the online space and knowledge of several scam types can only go so far. As such, we should proactively adopt anti-scam measures to safeguard ourselves and those around us from scams. These measures reduce the likelihood of us being scammed. This is why the Singapore Government developed a multi-pronged strategy involving very close partnerships with our community and industry partners. The first prong, prevent and block scammers' approaches by securing comms channels like the SMS Sender ID Registry, the Scam Shield App, blocking scam activities on online platforms which includes encouraging online platforms to implement safety features, securing bank channels like lower default transaction limits and money lock. The second prong, detecting and reporting via enhanced fraud surveillance mechanisms like the 24x7 call centres for major banks and enhanced reporting channels which includes the ease of reporting via the Scam Shield App. The third prong involves swift containment of scams and freezing of scam-tainted accounts and recovering of funds. For example, the emergency kill switches for banned accounts and strengthening legislative levers such as CDSA and CMA amendments. Last but not in the least, the fourth prong which is to educate the public to act against scams. We believe that a vigilant and discerning public is our best defence against scams. For the purposes of this presentation, I'll be sharing about our anti-scam public education efforts in more detail. The Scam Public Education Office or SPIO for short, was set up in 2023 within the Police Force to drive anti-scam public education efforts and to ensure consistency in messaging across this effort. The office looks to establish community partnerships to co-create and spread anti-scam solutions within the community. These efforts and outreach will be evaluated based on their effectiveness. Our approach to anti- scam public education efforts has three tiers. First are the broad-based programmes and communications which drives the National Anti-Scam Act campaign to encourage the public to take up co-creating actions to enhance their scam resilience. Next are the targeted programmes that focuses on outreach to specific population segments by leveraging on public-private partnerships. Here we push out content on specific scam types with high volume and losses such as investment scams, government official impersonation scams, and job scams that targets population segments that are more vulnerable to such scams. We also put out timely information on emerging scam types and or variants to put the public on alert. Finally are engagement efforts to partner the community to co-create and amplify anti-scam messages within the community. The focus of our anti-scam campaigns have evolved since 2014. The initial campaigns focused on raising awareness on the common scam types and tactics in Singapore. In later years, the campaigns focused on promoting awareness of common scam signs across all scam types. From 2023 onwards, however, we shifted our focus on scam types and tactics to focusing on encouraging the public to adopt protective actions to protect themselves from scams. There were two reasons for this move. First, the scam types and variants changed very quickly. Secondly, we found through our surveys that people generally have good knowledge on scams but they may not necessarily be aware of the specific measures to take to protect themselves from scams. So this is where the campaign plays an important role designed to bridge the action awareness gap. The ad campaign emphasizes the following key messages that everyone can fall prey to scams, awareness of and confidence in their ability to detect scams alone is not enough because we may not be alert all the time and there will be times we will be vulnerable but the protective actions we take would enhance our scam resilience. ADD is an acronym that stands for Add, Check and Tell. ADD encourages people to adopt security features such as installing the ScamShoe app, Moneylock, two and multi-factor authentication to enhance the resilience of their devices, banking and online accounts against scams. Check encourages people to develop the habit of slowing down and checking whenever they are unsure. Slowing down and checking provides a cognitive break which helps people activate System 2, the deliberate and conscious part of their decision making. Tell encourages people to share their scam encounters with authorities and loved ones. Their sharing can help protect others from scams. To promote this campaign, assets are placed across multiple platforms both physical and online touch points including out-of-home media, digital and social media placements amongst others. This is a short 60-second video promoting the ADD campaign specifically composed to educate people on these three simple anti-scam actions in a more catchy and engaging manner. You can view it on YouTube and can scan it via the QR code provided here. We focus on the ADD for the first year of the campaign. Like those reflected below, our assets include encouraging the public to add security features like the ScamShoe app, the Antivirus app and Moneylock. Another measure that we encourage is the uptake of an international call blocking option. To conclude the first year, we did an ADD asset roundup to remind the public of the four key security measures to adopt as shown in the image here. It should be noted that even if the national campaign pivoted its focus to encouraging public adoption of protective measures, we continue to promote public awareness of common and trending scam types. The information can come in the form of police news releases, our scam bulletin infographics, bite-sized videos and newspaper column articles that are distributed via our and our partners WhatsApp and Telegram networks. The information is also disseminated through other platforms like digital display panels, social media channels and print media. Besides pushing out campaign assets via the various platforms, both our public and private entities support our outreach efforts to the different population segments such as the youth and the elderly. The anti-scam aspects and messages are carried via our partners initiatives through existing networks and programs. As shown here, you can see some examples illustrating this. Such partnerships are critical to our efforts as they help to extend our reach. Our partners are also able to engage their respective networks on anti-scam prevention in ways that are familiar and engaging to them. We also engage our migrant worker communities to keep them safe from scams. This slide highlights some of our efforts in partnership with the Ministry of Manpower, MOM and migrant worker volunteer organizations in Singapore. Most of the materials created in our outreach to this community are in multiple languages to facilitate understanding. We also actively engage different population segments to promote awareness of scams and co-create solutions on how we can better promote awareness of scams and encourage adoption of anti-scam protective measures amongst their networks. CSCAM, as you can see in the picture, is one of such initiatives. Another similar initiative to raise awareness on scams is the 2023 TikTok video challenge organized in partnership with the National Crime Prevention Council, NCPC and the Ministry of Manpower, MOM. The competition tapped on the creativity of participants to reach out to their community with important anti-scam messages in ways that resonate with them. Before I end off, here are some key tips for you to take away to enhance your own scam resilience. Add the following security measures on the lab to enhance the resilience of your devices and online accounts against scams. In particular, download the Scamshield app. You will receive significantly less scam calls and SMSs. On the right is a picture introducing the Scamshield suite. Whenever you are unsure if something is a scam, remember, call 1799 to check. The helpline operates 24x7. You can also check the legitimacy of phone numbers and text messages with the Scamshield app. Do also visit the Scamshield website at www.scamshield.gov.sg, our one-stop portal on scams to learn about the latest scam trends and tips on protecting yourself against scams. Scams are a bane to our society and an assault on our personal vulnerabilities. Recognizing our vulnerabilities is the first step towards protecting ourselves from scams. To fight back, we need to work on ourselves and build our collective resilience against scams.