Salon helps raise scam awareness in locality

SINGAPORE - Customers often confide in hairdressers when they come to Vybe's Hairdressing salon in Bedok. 

But the stories that have bothered assisting salon manager Zakiah Hanim most lately are those involving scams.

Several customers at the salon are elderly folk who are unfamiliar with scams, said Ms Hanim, 34, who recalled a family telling her they lost their savings to a phishing scam late last year.

There were other similar cases, said Ms Hanim, the salon's manager, who realised that some customers did not know they should avoid callers whose numbers begin with "+65", exposing them to fraudsters.

One of the bosses at the salon even had a close call when she was contacted by a scammer who accused her of illegal gambling and committing fraud.

When her boss denied it, the scammer lied she had been impersonated and convinced her to provide her NRIC details for Interpol investigations. Ms Hanim said: "Our director heard about it and thankfully stopped her from giving more information."

Hearing such horror stories, Ms Hanim readily accepted the police's offer at the end of last year to collaborate with heartland businesses to raise awareness on scams.

Salon staff stuck anti-scam posters on the walls during two runs of the campaign during the Christmas and Chinese New Year period, which were ideal times as footfall was higher, said Ms Hanim.

They promoted police anti-scam quizzes and mobile community alert services to about 200 customers, who were rewarded with goodie bags from the police.

As an incentive, the salon gave out free loyalty stamps worth $100 to those who participated in the online quiz, which educates participants on how to identify different scams.

The salon was among a list of small businesses given the Community Partnership Award by the police on April 7 to recognise their efforts in fighting scams.

Ms Hanim said: "We are close to our clients, and we know some lost their jobs during Covid-19 and are willing to take any jobs. With job and investment scams around, they are especially vulnerable."

Correction note: An earlier version of this article identified Ms Zakiah Hanim as a hairdresser. This has been corrected. We are sorry for the error.