ICA officer raises awareness on scams, but netizens focus on his $8K watch: ‘Are civil servants too free & overpaid?’

A video of an Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) officer entertaining a scam call to raise public awareness struck a different cord on netizens, who wondered if civil servants were too free and overpaid to afford expensive watches.

“The day has come,” wrote ICA in a post on Oct 25, featuring ASP Kelvin responding to a scam call from a scammer claiming to be from ICA. ASP Kelvin entertained the scammer’s modus operandi for nearly a minute before asking if he could meet the person behind the line.

The caller said he was at the ICA headquarters. “I’m also an ICA officer working at the headquarters. And we will never ask for personal details; that’s why I don’t believe you,” said ASP Kelvin, and the scammer immediately hung up the phone.

The post included details on how to avoid such scams, such as refraining from sharing personal identification details.

Meanwhile, the video sparked criticisms from other social media accounts, such as Facebook page NUS – No Use Singapore, which wrote, “I also want to join civil service, every time do videos, then can buy Omega watch liao.”

The post included a photo of the Omega Seamaster worn by ASP Kelvin, retailing for S$7,900.

The post was also shared on Facebook page Complaint Singapore on Thursday (Oct 27), with the caption, “overpaid civil servants. Really too free.”

Fortunately, a majority of netizens looked past the watch and agreed that ICA raising awareness on scams was the whole point of the video.

“Just a watch for 7900 SGD. who do you think couldn’t afford it? They made this video to spread info of scams to educate people. It is their job also. Totally BS,” wrote a netizen.

Others noted that the watch was most probably purchased with his hard-earned money.

“His hard-earned money. He deserves it. Everything must heart pain. You want then go earn it la save money,” commented Facebook user Fyra Qatek.

“What’s wrong with owning a nice watch? Since when civil servants cannot own nice things as well? Is 7.9K absurdly expensive that he cannot afford it?” added another netizen. /TISG

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