Singapore is currently considering a bill that provides for the police to be able to order banks to temporarily prevent customers from transferring money to fraudsters.
Nowadays, the country’s Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) is seeking public comment on the proposed Protection from Scams Bill. The implementation of the relevant efforts began after it became known that some victims of fraud voluntarily transfer money to the accounts of criminals, even against the background of receiving warnings from relatives, police, and financial institutions about the high probability of fraud. The relevant information is contained in the MHA press release, which was published last week.
The mentioned press release separately notes that fraud is most often committed as part of the so-called love scams on the Internet and crimes related to impersonating someone.
The MHA also reports that in the first half of the current year, 86% of reported fraud cases were the result of self-effected money transfers.
The press release notes that financial institutions offer their clients anti-fraud protection tools, but at the same time, the police have no way to prevent criminal transactions.
The bill provides for granting police the right to issue restriction orders (ROs) only in cases of scams conducted through calls, text messages, or online communications. This initiative would also cover money transfers and all credit facilities. Moreover, the bill would allow ROs to be issued for 28 days at a time.
It is worth noting that the issue of cybersecurity has become more relevant recently. In this case, the main factor in scaling the threat was the fact that fraudsters have access to artificial intelligence technologies that make their activities more sophisticated. In the context of the corresponding challenge in the cybersecurity space, the personal awareness of users is important. For example, a query in an Internet search engine, such as how to know if my camera is hacked, will allow anyone to get information about signs of unauthorized access to the device.
