The Singapore Police Force’s Anti-Scam Centre (ASC) and six banks utilised Robotic Process Automation (RPA) technology in a coordinated effort to identify victims of job, investment, fake friend call and e-commerce scams.

The objective is to alert these victims early of the deceptive schemes they were entrenched in, to mitigate financial losses for potential scam victims, the police said in a May 6 statement.

The partnering banks are DBS, UOB, OCBC, Standard Chartered, HSBC and GXS.

Sent SMSes to potential victims

During the two-month operation conducted from Mar. 1 to Apr. 30, 2024, ASC officers and the banks sent more than 16,700 SMSes to over 12,500 potential scam victims who are customers of the banks.

This upstream detection of scam victims resulted in the successful disruption of over 3,000 ongoing scams and averted potential financial losses of more than S$100 million.

The RPA technology was employed to automate the sharing and processing of information and sharing, enabling the police to swiftly reach out to potential scam victims through SMSes.

The SMS alerts notified the victims of the deceptive schemes they were entrenched in and advised them to halt any additional transfers.

Upon receiving the SMSes, most of the victims would realise that they had fallen prey to a scam and come forward to lodge a police report.

How to not get scammed

The police also advised members of the public on how to not fall for scams.

This includes adding security features, such as the ScamShield application and two-factor authentication for personal accounts, checking for potential signs of a scam by asking questions and fact-checking requests for personal information and money transfers, as well as telling the authorities and others about scam encounters.

For more information on scams, members of the public can visit www.scamalert.sg or call the Anti-Scam Hotline at 1800-722-6688.

Top photo via Singapore Police Force