Two-month operation relies on robotic process automation technology to detect possible victims, enabling authorities to reach out to them quickly
MORE than 1,444 scam cases were thwarted through a joint operation by the Singapore Police Force’s (SPF) Anti-Scam Centre and six banks, preventing losses of around S$73 million.
The two-month operation, conducted between Nov 1 and Dec 31, 2024, made use of robotic process automation technology to detect potential victims of investment, fake friend call, and e-commerce scams, said the SPF in a press statement on Wednesday (Jan 8).
The technology helped streamline information processing and sharing to enable the police to swiftly reach potential scam victims through SMSes.
This allowed Anti-Scam Centre officers to send more than 13,000 SMSes to over 8,700 customers identified as potential scam victims to notify them of transfers from their accounts to suspicious accounts and to advise them against making further transfers.
“Upon receiving the SMSes, most victims would realise that they had fallen prey to a scam and would come forward to lodge a police report,” said the SPF.
This was the sixth joint operation conducted in 2024 by the Anti-Scam Centre and the six partnering banks – DBS, UOB, OCBC, Standard Chartered, HSBC, and GXS Bank.
Over the year, the joint operations cumulatively helped to successfully disrupt around 13,000 scams involving more than 55,600 potential victims and over S$420 million worth of potential losses, said the SPF.
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