SINGAPORE – Singaporeans must take active steps in the fight against scams because anyone can fall prey to them and the consequences can be dire, Minister of State for Home Affairs Sun Xueling said on Wednesday.
She said: “Scams present a significant challenge to all law and enforcement agencies across the world.
“What this means is that we cannot rely on enforcement alone. The best defence against scams is becoming an aware, watchful and discerning public, who will protect ourselves and also act to protect others against scams.”
She was speaking at the second edition of the anti-scam seminar held at the Suntec Singapore Convention and Exhibition Centre, as well as virtually via live stream.
Titled Scaminar! ACT Against Scams, the event was jointly organised by the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Singapore Police Force and the National Crime Prevention Council (NCPC), in partnership with The Straits Times.
Ms Sun, who is the chairman of the Inter-Ministry Committee on Scams and guest of honour at the event, also launched the ninth edition of the anti-scam campaign by the NCPC, with the refreshed tagline “I can ACT against scams”.
The ACT acronym in the new campaign tagline outlines how members of the public can Add security features, Check for signs, and Tell the authorities and others about scams.
Because of the growing threat of scams, the latest initiative is needed to galvanise the public into action, said Ms Sun.
She added: “Based on the National Prevalence Survey of Scams in 2020, we realised that while most people know about scams, they may not be aware of the specific measures that they can take to protect themselves from scams.
“We want to bridge this awareness-action gap, by promoting the ACT framework of Add, Check and Tell.”
About 1,000 people from the community, industry players and government agency partners participated in the event.
The national anti-scam campaign was launched in 2014 with the setting up of the scamalert.sg website.
Its aim then was to raise public awareness specifically about cyberscams, with 504 cases of e-commerce cheating cases recorded in the first half of that year.
