SINGAPORE - Some residents this month received a plain white envelope with the words "Do not ignore this letter" and a Singapore Police Force crest and tagline in the corner - leading to questions about its authenticity.

The letter is in fact an anti-scam awareness initiative by the Ang Mo Kio Police Division, sent to all 316,000 households under its jurisdiction, the police told The Sunday Times on Saturday (Jan 15).

A spokesman said: "The letter was designed to capture the attention of residents and generate interest among them.

"We applied behavioural insights principles, for example in the use of large fonts and red text, to 'nudge' residents to take action to read the advisories and spread the message," he added.

But residents who received it said that after being initially intrigued, they lost interest and some wound up binning the letter once they realised it was part of a genuine police anti-scam campaign.

Contained within the envelope is a note signed off by the area's police division commander, warning of the danger of falling victim to "relentless" scammers targeting hard-earned savings.

It describes how scammers - largely operating from overseas - make their approach through the likes of unsolicited text messages and e-mails.

Prevalent types of scams involve job offers, investment opportunities and phishing, where scammers claim to represent trusted entities like the Government or banks, and convince victims to divulge sensitive information such as passwords.

The note is accompanied by a leaflet depicting signs of scams, including asking for funds to be transferred, or deals that are too good to be true.

People are also advised to give some thought and check or confirm details before taking any action.

The police said they would be sending similar fliers islandwide by the end of February.

Before sending out the letters, six neighbourhood police centres under Ang Mo Kio Police Division posted a teaser on their Facebook pages, to encourage residents to look out for the letters and not ignore them, said the police.

On Jan 7, for example, the Facebook page for Punggol Neighbourhood Police Centre had said the letter "contains an important message" and is "not a scam".

Some discussion has taken place online - including over 1,300 "upvotes" on the Reddit platform - with writers either pointing out its contents or continuing to wonder if it might be fake.

Regional sourcing manager Leonard Low, 34, said he was "suspicious" of the letter's origins before he opened it up but quickly realised it was a caution about scams.

"I didn't bother to read the letter in detail," he added.

A full-time national serviceman, who wanted to be known only as Adam, said he was initially "jumpy" about receiving a letter with an ominous-sounding instruction.

"But upon seeing the lack of an address, I assumed it was just one of those mailers," said the 23-year-old.

"Since it was a generic letter, I just read through it and threw it in the trash."

The note inside also points to "rising cases of scams in Singapore", giving the example of how "recently, a Singaporean woman lost $3 million to an online scam".

Banking scams have been in the headlines of late.

In December, at least 469 people were duped by a text message purportedly from OCBC Bank. They lost $8.5 million in total.

On Thursday, the police said at least 1,200 cases of phishing scams have been reported since December.

A public education campaign was launched in August 2020 with a slogan "Spot the Signs. Stop the Crimes".

This tagline was reproduced in the leaflet within the police's recent "Do not ignore this letter" initiative.

"Through this mailer, we hope to raise public awareness of (scam) types and to enable the public to better protect themselves against these scams," the police said on Saturday.

Those with information on scams can call the police hotline on 1800-255-0000, or submit it online at the iWitness website.

For more information on scams, the public can visit the Scam Alert website or call the Anti-Scam Hotline on 1800-722-6688.

They can also sign up to receive up-to-date messages at the Scam Alert website.