SINGAPORE - Something as seemingly harmless as a hard copy of a phone bill can be used by scammers to con their victims.

This is because it contains the full names, addresses and contact numbers of those being targeted, said Mr Willis Lim, director of the National Cyber Threat Analysis Centre, the research division of the Cyber Security Agency that oversees Singapore's cyber security strategy.

Telling the story of his mother throwing his phone bill into the dustbin without omitting sensitive information, Mr Lim noted how documents poorly disposed of are one of three ways scammers find victims to target.

Mr Lim was speaking to The Straits Times on the fifth episode of the Stop Scams podcast, which will be broadcast on Wednesday (May 25).

The Stop Scams podcast is a series by ST to raise greater public awareness of the modern scourge of scams. In Singapore, more than $1 billion has been lost by scam victims since 2016.

During the episode, Mr Lim said that the two other sources of personal data are data breaches – the unauthorised release of someone’s personal details – and personal information that scammers obtain online.

Mr Lim said: "The more information a scammer has about an individual, the more convincing their scam will be.

"When they combine pieces of information about you and they can derive this information from everywhere, including what you post on social media online, they will have a fairly good idea of (who) you are and what platforms to use to target you."

Mr Lim also warned about tech support scams, which have seen a resurgence recently.

Since January, at least 154 victims have lost at least $7.1 million to tech support scams, said the police.

Common methods used in tech support scams involve scammers claiming to be employees of Internet service providers and offering to fix Wi-Fi network issues in order to gain access to victims' bank accounts remotely.

Mr Lim said: "Should the victim prove uncooperative, the scammer may threaten to lock the victims out of their computer or leak information that they have stolen using the malware they had installed earlier. They could threaten to delete programmes or documents that are essential to the victim's computer until the latter pays up."

Mr Lim also provided tips on what victims of tech support scams can do, such as resetting their devices to factory settings, to remove any spyware or malware programmes that scammers may have secretly installed.

He also offered suggestions for people to set strong passwords that are also easy to remember, like incorporating Singlish or unique pass phrases, to safeguard their accounts.

Follow ST's Stop Scams podcast series here:

Stop Scam Playlist: https://str.sg/wuZB

Apple Podcasts: https://str.sg/wnB5

Spotify: https://str.sg/wnBS

Visit the Stop Scams microsite here: https://www.straitstimes.com/stop-scams