At least $1.1 billion was lost to scams in Singapore last year, up by 70.6 per cent from 2023.

The number of scam cases rose by 10.6 per cent year-on-year to 51,501 cases, up from 46,563 in 2023, said the police in their annual Scams and Cybercrimes brief on Tuesday (Feb 25). 

In 2024, e-commerce scams were the largest — 22.7 per cent of the total number of cases reported. 

At least $17.5 million was lost to these scams, with concert tickets at the top of the list.

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A majority of the cases - at over 70 per cent - saw less than $5,000 in losses, and the median loss per case fell by 12.6 per cent from $1,590 in 2023 to $1,389 in 2024.

Scam cases with losses of at least $100,000 each made up 3.3 per cent of the total cases in 2024, with four cases incurring high losses that amounted to $237.9 million.

Speaking to the media on Monday (Feb 24), Deputy Director of Scam Public Education Office Jeffrey Chin said that "scams remain a key concern" due to the upward trend in cases reported and amounts lost in 2024.

"Scammers will constantly find ways to scam us into making fast decisions. We would like to urge everyone to slow down and take a moment to check if you're unsure if something is a scam," said Chin, encouraging members of the public to call the Scamshield helpline at 1799 regarding suspicious calls and text messages.

Losses from cryptocurrency scams also spiked to about 24.3 per cent of total losses compared to 6.8 per cent in 2023.

Out of all the cases reported last year, self-effected transfers accounted for 82.4 per cent. In such cases, scammers did not gain direct access to victims' accounts, but manipulated them into performing the monetary transactions themselves.

In terms of total amount lost, investment scams, job scams and government officials impersonation scams were the top three scam types in 2024.

At least $320.7 million was lost to investment scams in 2024, and the police noted an increasing prevalence of victims being added to channels on messaging platforms by scammers for purported "investment opportunities".

Youths, young adults and adults under the age of 50 formed 70.9 per cent of the scam victims. E-commerce scams, job scams and phishing scams were the top three scam types that victims in this age group fell prey to.

Victims in these age groups were mostly contacted by scammers via messaging platforms, social media and online shopping platforms. 

Comparatively, those aged 65 and above, made up 8.4 per cent, and mostly fell victim to phishing scams, investment scams and fake friend call scams.

The average amount lost by the elderly was highest among the various age groups. 

In 2024, messaging platforms and social media — Facebook, Whatsapp, Telegram, Tiktok and Instagram — were the most used methods by scammers to lure their victims.

The police also noted a sharp spike of 95.7 per cent in cases perpetrated on Telegram in 2024. 

The number of cases perpetrated on online shopping platforms also rose last year to 5,079, up from 4,893 in 2023. Out of these cases, 75 per cent occurred on Carousell and 18.3 per cent occurred on Facebook Marketplace.

The police subsequently highlighted the Protection from Scams Act and the Code of Practice for E-commerce Services under the Online Criminal Harms Act as recent legislative levers to combat scams and cybercrime.

The Anti-Scam Command (ASCom) also expanded its partnerships to more than 120 institutions, including Interpol and overseas law enforcement agencies. In establishing direct communication channels with these partners, ASCom managed to freeze over 21,000 bank accounts and recovered over $182 million in 2024.

Increasing accessibility to self-help anti-scam resources was also another key area of action in 2024 with the launch of ScamShield Suite.

ScamShield was expanded from an app to a suite of four anti-scam resources in September 2024, including a 24/7 helpline, which receives approximately 500 calls daily from 14 daily in 2023. The enhanced app, which blocks scam calls and detects scam SMSes, also saw over 1.18 million downloads.

dana.leong@asiaone.com

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