Singaporeans getting back at scammers

People waste scammers' time by answering their calls without being scammed.

By Julian Lo

Jan 6, 2020

Lim Yi Wen at the BTS 'Love Yourself' concert in Singapore, 2019. (Photo Credits: Lim Yi Wen)

Ms Lim Yi Wen, an 18-year-old student was nearly scammed when she paid an $80 deposit to someone to help her buy two tickets to BTS' 'Love Yourself' concert in 2019.

ScamAlert, a website by the National Crime Prevention Council (NCPC), has a database of stories showing how everyday Singaporeans fell prey to a host of scams.

According to ScamAlert, one can identify signs of scams. Lack of identification of the caller and questions asking one for "personal information", "bank details" and "fund transfers" are typical warning signs.

However, not everyone is falling prey to these scams. Some people are getting back at scammers by wasting scammers' time by answering their calls without falling prey to their scams.

In a survey done by npTribune, 25 of 53 total respondents (47 per cent) said that they would waste a scammer's time. The respondents answered this question: "Do you waste scammers' time by fake answering scam calls?"

Dr David Shapiro, a psychologist from Singapore American Community Action Council Counselling (SACAC), a company providing professional counselling and psychotherapy support, said, "They not only just being disruptive to the scammer but actually be helpful to common social good."

"That might decrease negative outcomes to other people, which can increase a person's sense of focus control, sense of efficacy and self-esteem, in that they would not only value the results but they would see themselves as operating for more than just themselves."

This explains why some people are retaliating by wasting scammers' time.

Freda Wee, a 17-year-old student said, "I don't know if it's a scammer if I don't pick up. I normally let them talk until I realise they are a scammer. After that, I just hang up."

"I know it's a scam because its some unknown voice. They normally speak in Chinese."

Kent Lim, 31, a financial consultant, said, "Sometimes they call in Chineses, other times in English. I just talk to them."

"I said "speak English please?", then they said 你会讲华语吗? [Do you speak Chinese?]. After that, they just hang up on me."

Chantel Chan, a 16-year-old student said, "I kind of just let it ring until the caller hangs up. If the same number I don't know calls too many times, I just block the number."

These comments which indicate Chinese-voiced calls as scams are aligned to the indicators of scams listed by ScamAlert.

However, Ms Yi Wen had a different experience.

"We lost our deposit which was like $80," said Ms Lim Yi Wen.

Ms Lim tried to buy tickets on Carousell to a concert by BTS, a Korean pop-culture music group. She deposited the money to a person who offered to help people buy concert tickets on Carousell.

She was asked to give a deposit of $40 per ticket, $80 for two tickets for her friend and her. The seller then asked for $400, the full amount for two concert tickets.

It was at this point Ms Lim wanted to get her money back. When she asked for a deposit refund, the seller refused. Consequently, she went to the police.

"They asked the person to come down to the police station, and then the person handed them cash, and then the police called us," said Ms Lim.

Ms Lim was able to recover her deposit because she had the seller's bank account number.

When asked to give advice, she said, "Don't use PayLah to transfer money. PayLah is not good. PayLah is via handphone number, so get their bank account, like their details of their bank account so that you can track them when it's needed."

Another explanation to why people are following this trend of wasting scammers' time is because how much scammers are earning of their illegal tactics.

NCPC has launched bus-stop ads to combat the increasing number of scams in Singapore. (Photo Credit: ScamAlert)

More than 120 impersonation scams were reported between January to August 2019, according to the scamalert.com, the anti-scam campaign website by the NCPC.

Scamalert.com lists 24 different types of scams. The "Top 5 Scam Types" from January to November 2019 are: Loan scam, Credit-for-sex scam, Cheating involving E-commerce, Internet Love Scam, and Investment scam