SINGAPORE - To educate children and the youth about scams, the police launched an arcade-style game to be rolled out in public areas and a card game that will be distributed to schools.
This is to create awareness about common scams like job scams, social media impersonation scams and phishing scams, which the police said have ensnared those aged between seven and 19 years old.
This group made up 7 per cent of scam victims between January and March this year, said a police spokesman.
The games were launched on Saturday (June 25) evening by Minister of State for Home Affairs and National Development Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim during the 22nd edition of the Delta League tournament, held from May 28 to June 25.
Jointly organised with the National Crime Prevention Council, the tournament uses sports and e-sports to keep youngsters occupied during the school break.
The grand finale was held on Saturday at Nexus International School at Aljunied.
Associate Professor Faishal played a round of the new arcade-style game, Scam Me If You Can, a five-minute interactive quiz played on a digital kiosk.
Players answer anti-scam quizzes on the touchscreen to gain points and can win a mystery prize dispensed from the machine.
The kiosk will be deployed at public locations with high footfall, starting at Singapore Management University and Clementi Community Library at Clementi Mall in July before moving to other locations.
The police also launched a second game called ScamBat, a card game created with students from the Media, Arts and Design School of Singapore Polytechnic.
Players draw from a deck of scam cards and check through their hand of cards to see if they have a suitable defensive card to fend off the scam and earn points.
The game is meant to be a fun way to train players to recognise and react appropriately to various types of scams, according to its rule book.
By the end of June, about 10,500 sets will be distributed to 385 schools including primary schools, polytechnics and universities.
The police spokesman said: "Scams continue to be a crime of concern that affects Singaporeans. We want to educate and raise awareness among Singaporeans on scams from an early age."
Last month, the police said since the start of this year, more than $2.7 million has been swindled from at least 587 people in phishing scams, with culprits pretending to be friends.
Earlier this month, The Straits Times reported that 67 victims lost more than $71,000 to new scam variants in the first half of June.
