Security News > 2022 > February > Singapore introduces potent anti-scam measures

The topic earned ministerial attention after instances of attacks and scams soared recently.

7 million from 790 customers by spoofing text messages in what minister of finance Lawrence Wong referred to as "By far the most serious phishing scam seen" in Singapore.

Another new measure will see Singapore's National Crime Prevention Council crowdsource information from the public, to harvest citizens' reports of scams to learn more about ongoing scams via a WhatsApp channel expected to go live in the third quarter of 2022.

Coincidentally, Singapore Post was also plagued by a phishing scam before Christmas 2021.

Teo was careful not to call scams like the OCBC incident a cyberattack or cybersecurity breach, instead describing them as acts of deception committed at speed and scale.

Minister of state for home affairs Desmond Tan then revealed that the Singapore police have frozen 121 bank accounts and recovered SG$2 million in relation to the OCBC scam.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2022/02/16/singapore_anti_scam_measures/