A study commissioned by WhatsApp and 2CV Singapore, a market research agency, shows that a majority of individuals victimized by scammers do not report scams to the authorities.
When asked for the reason, two common reasons given were that the respondents thought that they would never fall for scammers’ schemes and that the respondents said they were “too busy,” Yahoo!News reported on Monday (Nov 21).
The police also regularly issue warning about scams, as does the National Crime Prevention Council Singapore. The most recent warning from the Singapore Police Force concerned the sale of fake concert tickets.
When asked what type of scam messages are the most prominent, 53 per cent of respondents on the WhatsApp and 2CV Singapore survey said that received messages concerning investment scams.
Fifty per cent of the respondents said they received phishing scams, and 48 per cent said they received messages about job scams. Forty-five per cent said they received delivery scam messages.
The study, which involved 500 Singaporeans and Permanent Residents between the age of 18 and older, was carried out in September of this year. Upon receiving scam messages, 71 per cent say they deal with them by merely deleting them, and 52 per cent say they just ignore them. Those who file actual reports with authorities or the platforms, 36 per cent, are very much the minority.
Moreover, 64 per cent of participants in the study who received scam messages do not report these to the police or the platform where they received the message, although 72 per cent said they block the senders.
Gerald Singham, chairman of the National Crime Prevention Council, underlined in a press release how vital it is to report scam messages. “It is important for the public to report scam messages directly to the platforms. By doing so, they are submitting relevant scam information that will be used to alert companies and government bodies to take early countermeasures against the scammers,” he said.
Singapore has a dedicated website just for the latest information concerning scams, which can be found at www.scamalert.sg. It lists the top five types of scams in Singapore, which are, job scams, phishing scams, online purchase scams, investment scams, and loan scams. The site also makes it easy for anyone who’s been victimised by scammers to file online or in-person reports and has a lot of useful information to help scam victims with what they can do.
People with any information about scams may call the police hotline at 1800-255-0000, or submit it online at www.police.gov.sg/iwitness. /TISG