Recent Patterns in Scams Targeting Seniors

Thank you, Speaker, and I thank the Minister of State. I have three supplementary questions.

One, given the increasing sophistication of scams targeting seniors, including cross-border and multi-step operations, could the Minister of State share how Singapore is strengthening its overall system design to stay ahead of rapidly evolving scam typologies rather than responding only after patterns emerge?

Two, could the Minister of State also share how coordination across banks, telecommunication companies (telcos) and enforcement agencies is being further optimised to shorten the critical time between scam detection and intervention, including the freezing of funds or disruption of scam flows, given how quickly losses can occur once victims are engaged?

And three, beyond systems and enforcement, could the Minister of State share how Singapore is further strengthening safeguards against increasingly sophisticated social engineering tactics that exploit trust, urgency and fear, particularly among our seniors, so that we can better protect vulnerable individuals before irreversible financial harm occurs?

Mr Speaker, I thank the Member for her supplementary questions. I will try to take them together as one reply.

Firstly, I would like to share with the House that indeed, scams are a very challenging situation for Singapore and in fact, not just Singapore but around the world. It is a global challenge. One report has it that last year, more than US$440 billion were lost to scams globally. And the financial incentive for scammers and for perpetrators is immense and therefore, they will try their very best to continuously innovate and get ahead. The incentives are very, very strong.

But having said so, indeed, I fully agree with what the Member has raised, in terms of the key thrusts that we should adopt in our anti-scam strategy – being proactive, going upstream, taking a risk-based approach and collaborating with partners. I think these are all very useful perspectives.

And indeed, that is the approach that we have taken as a whole-of-Government and a whole-of-society anti-scam strategy, multi-agency and multi-pronged. And let me take the chance to share some of the key thrusts of how we have approached this problem.

Firstly, using the powers enabled by the Online Criminal Harms Act (OCHA), we have moved upstream. We are working very closely with our online service providers to make sure we reduce the overall threat surface area that these platforms put on.

Second, we work very closely with our telcos, our banks and also the recognised and authorised crypto service providers to make sure we are able to prevent upstream as well as interdict after scams have taken place.

Third, we have also enhanced our penalty framework to deter perpetrators from operating in Singapore and also making sure that we work closely with overseas partners to pursue overseas where possible. We have also put in place a penalty framework to deter scam mules.

Fourth, public education – extensive public education, including for our seniors – to make sure that we share the latest modus operandi as well as the best anti-scam preventive practices that our citizens and our seniors can adopt.

And fifth, we are stepping up international collaboration with governments, with jurisdictions, with law enforcement agencies sharing best practices as well as making sure we cooperate and share intelligence closely and to also shape how global norms approach scams.

I think we have taken a very extensive approach. Of course, we can do more and we want to continuously spare no effort in making sure we fight scams.

I would also like to refer the Member to the Home Affairs Ministry's Committee of Supply debate speech just a few months ago. We have given a fuller account of all the various initiatives that we have taken and will be taking to fight scams. And of course, we welcome any further suggestions the Member may have.

Thank you, Speaker. Just a question for the Minister of State. Does the Ministry capture the total amount of monies recovered from Singaporeans who are victims of scams? I believe, earlier, the Minister of State said that the Police does not collect that information, but I am wondering whether that was specific to the different age groups? Does the Police or the Ministry have a global figure of how much actually has been recovered? Because that may help Singaporeans understand that if you are a victim of scams, the prospect of recovering your money is actually very low.

Mr Speaker, I thank the Member for the clarification. Yes, indeed, the Police do track the amount of scam proceeds recovered. We just do not track them by age group. Yes, the amount of scam proceeds that have been recovered are a small proportion compared to the overall amount of monies that is lost. I do not have the exact figures, but it is a smaller percentage. And I think that is also a useful reminder that, indeed, prevention is better than the follow-up pursuit of recovering monies.