Public awareness the main strategy to protect elderly from online crimes: Ong Ye Kung

SINGAPORE - Public awareness and education is the main strategy to combat the rise in online crimes and scams here that target the elderly, said Education Minister Ong Ye Kung on Friday (Feb 28).

At the debate on the budget of the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), Mr Ong, who is on the board of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), highlighted four areas in which MAS, the Singapore Police Force (SPF), the National Crime Prevention Council, and banks, have focused their efforts to prevent this vulnerable group from falling prey to scams.

Mr Ong was responding to a question from Mr Png Eng Huat (Hougang) on instituting measures and safeguards for banks to protect the elderly and vulnerable from scams and online crime, on behalf of Senior Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, who is the Minister-in-charge of MAS.

"Such scams and crimes typically trick individuals into handing over their monies through fake investment schemes or by using their personal information to access their bank accounts. The criminals reach out to their victims through telephone calls, messages and e-mails, even cyber attacks," said Mr Ong.

On top of public agencies raising awareness of the crime through media campaigns, roadshows and community outreach programmes, Mr Ong said banks regularly remind customers not to disclose their personal details to anyone.

"Bank customers have also been encouraged to maintain strong cyber hygiene by installing anti-virus software and regularly updating it," he said.

Second, MAS has regulations and guidelines related to the security of online transactions that have become the industry norm, said Mr Ong. For example, banks must implement multi-factor authentication.

Fraud monitoring and detection systems are another prerequisite to detect and block suspicious transactions. Customers also receive real-time transaction alerts, so they can notify their banks of any unauthorised transactions quickly.

"Third, we freeze accounts suspected of receiving the proceeds from online scams," said Mr Ong.

He said that when suspect bank accounts are identified, the SPF's Anti-Scam Centre will freeze them as soon as possible, disrupting the operation and increasing the chances of recovering the victims' monies.

Lastly, the SPF works with its foreign counterparts when a scam is cross-border in nature. Mr Ong said the Transnational Commercial Crime Task Force (TCTF) was set up in October 2017 to investigate scams such as China officials impersonation scams, Internet love scams and credit-for-sex scams.

"It actively shares information with foreign law enforcement agencies, and where possible, works with them to mount joint operations," he said.

"Nine operations have been conducted since the set-up of TCTF, which resulted in at least 440 cases solved and the arrest of over 100 suspects regionally."

Mr Ong also had advice for individuals on the receiving end of fraudulent requests.

First, people should never withdraw money from their accounts to pass to anyone, "even if they claim to be from the authorities". They should also never share personal and banking details, especially their one-time passwords (OTPs).

Last, when in doubt, they should consult their loved ones, call the anti-scam helpline or visit the NCPC's Scam Alert website at scamalert.sg, said Mr Ong.

"The sophistication of scams will continue to evolve. The cross-border nature also poses additional challenges, and limits what our public agencies and banks can achieve on their own," he said.