Measures to Minimise Risks of Cross-border Scams and Fraud

Ms Joan Pereira asked the Prime Minister and Minister for Finance with regard to cross-border instant money transfer initiatives, what measures will be implemented to minimise the risks of cross-border scams and fraud, especially for vulnerable groups of users, such as the elderly.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has real-time payment linkages with India, Malaysia and Thailand for low value payments. These linkages enable users, such as tourists and workers, to make instant low-cost payments to merchants and remittances to family, in Singapore and in the region.

Financial institutions participating in these linkages have implemented anti-scam controls to mitigate the risk of scammers exploiting this channel to move proceeds out of Singapore. These measures, which apply to all users, include a default transaction notification threshold of $100 or lower, and a daily transaction limit of not more than $1,000. They will continue to actively monitor changes in scam typologies and will adjust these measures as appropriate.

For users, the same precautions apply for domestic and cross-border payments. We urge users to remain vigilant and to adopt good hygiene practices when banking online. These include not disclosing one’s account credentials, actively checking transaction notifications, and verifying that transactions are made to the intended recipient.