<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR>Police working to curb phone scare scams
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->I REFER to the letters from Ms Chua Chieu Yin last Tuesday ('Take action against phone scare scams') and Ms Ong Leng Mui in Forum Online last Wednesday ('Phone scare scams: What do police advise?').
Since the proliferation of such phone scare scams in 2007, police have adopted a multi-pronged approach through education, enforcement and prevention. Apart from raising public awareness through various channels, police have also sought the assistance of banks and remittance agencies to identify and dissuade potential victims from making money transfers. So far, these institutions have been instrumental in helping police prevent people from falling prey to such scams.
In fact, our community outreach efforts have forced criminals to change their tactics as it has become more difficult for them to get their victims to remit money to overseas accounts and operate abroad. Increasingly, the scammers instruct their victims to make cash transactions locally, usually by way of a designated drop-off point in secluded areas.
With greater public awareness, many such cases are reported immediately, which allows police to arrest syndicate members when they try to retrieve the cash.
Police have also been actively working with our foreign counterparts to curb such transnational crime. One fruitful example was our cooperation with the Hong Kong police, which resulted in the arrest and conviction of two people in Hong Kong recently for a lottery scam which involved a Singaporean victim.
The key to reducing such crimes lies in public awareness and vigilance. Police will continue to raise awareness of common variations of such scams through the media, including posters, pamphlets, SMS advisories and the Internet. The community should play a part by making sure that family members and friends stay vigilant against such scams.
If members of the public receive kidnap scam calls, they should remain calm and try to contact their next of kin immediately. They could also pose questions to the kidnapper to establish if the call is genuine. Should attempts to contact their loved ones fail, they should then contact the police. Members of the public should not reveal their particulars to the scammers or transfer any money to them.
More details of other scam tactics and advisories can be found on the Singapore Police Force website at www.spf.gov.sg or the Commercial Affairs Department website at www.cad.gov.sg DSP Paul Tay
Assistant Director, Media Relations
Singapore Police Force
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->I REFER to the letters from Ms Chua Chieu Yin last Tuesday ('Take action against phone scare scams') and Ms Ong Leng Mui in Forum Online last Wednesday ('Phone scare scams: What do police advise?').
Since the proliferation of such phone scare scams in 2007, police have adopted a multi-pronged approach through education, enforcement and prevention. Apart from raising public awareness through various channels, police have also sought the assistance of banks and remittance agencies to identify and dissuade potential victims from making money transfers. So far, these institutions have been instrumental in helping police prevent people from falling prey to such scams.
In fact, our community outreach efforts have forced criminals to change their tactics as it has become more difficult for them to get their victims to remit money to overseas accounts and operate abroad. Increasingly, the scammers instruct their victims to make cash transactions locally, usually by way of a designated drop-off point in secluded areas.
With greater public awareness, many such cases are reported immediately, which allows police to arrest syndicate members when they try to retrieve the cash.
Police have also been actively working with our foreign counterparts to curb such transnational crime. One fruitful example was our cooperation with the Hong Kong police, which resulted in the arrest and conviction of two people in Hong Kong recently for a lottery scam which involved a Singaporean victim.
The key to reducing such crimes lies in public awareness and vigilance. Police will continue to raise awareness of common variations of such scams through the media, including posters, pamphlets, SMS advisories and the Internet. The community should play a part by making sure that family members and friends stay vigilant against such scams.
If members of the public receive kidnap scam calls, they should remain calm and try to contact their next of kin immediately. They could also pose questions to the kidnapper to establish if the call is genuine. Should attempts to contact their loved ones fail, they should then contact the police. Members of the public should not reveal their particulars to the scammers or transfer any money to them.
More details of other scam tactics and advisories can be found on the Singapore Police Force website at www.spf.gov.sg or the Commercial Affairs Department website at www.cad.gov.sg DSP Paul Tay
Assistant Director, Media Relations
Singapore Police Force
