“International collaboration is a critical component of Singapore’s strategy to combat fraud, and we are committed to doing our part – both domestically and on the global stage,” Mrs Teo said, according to a press release from the Ministry of Home Affairs.
With the help of other countries, Singapore was able to take down 19 transnational scam syndicates last year, she noted.
Earlier this year, the Singapore Police Force said these transnational syndicates were responsible for more than 730 scam cases and more than 110 people were arrested.
Singapore previously signed an agreement with Malaysia to fight scams across telecommunication channels. In 2022, Singapore and Australia also signed a pact to combat scams and spam.
Mrs Teo also said more than 19,600 bank accounts were frozen in Singapore last year.
Banks and the police work together to trace funds and freeze scam-tainted accounts, and more than S$100 million of scam losses were recovered.
There were a record 46,563 scam cases in Singapore last year. The most common scam that people fell for were job scams, followed by e-commerce and fake friend call scams. Victims lost a total of S$651.8 million, slightly less than the year before.
Mrs Teo said that phishing scams remain quite serious in other parts of the world, and some countries were interested in Singapore’s SMS Sender ID Registry, which requires organisations to register their sender IDs.
Messages from sender IDs that are not on the registry will be marked as “Likely-SCAM”, according to the Singapore Network Information Centre.
“The registry has been critical in bringing down phishing scam numbers in Singapore, because many of those scams were perpetrated through SMSes,” said Mrs Teo. Other countries are keen to implement a similar system in their countries, she added.
