Sick of the recent uprise in picking up calls from unknown numbers only to find out they’re trying to swindle you? So are many, many others in Singapore.
Concerned about multiple news reports about victims falling prey to phone scams, a team from internet marketing firm RRE Digital Agency felt compelled to help the mostly elderly targets who’ve lost large sums of money.
As such, they’ve launched Don’t Disturb .Us, a public webform where users can share contact numbers of scammers who’ve posed as representatives from multiple agencies, be it DHL or even the Ministry of Manpower. From there, the Google Form will collate scam call numbers, which will then be reported to the relevant authorities.
“We wanted to create an initiative for the youth to engage their families, be aware of the dangers currently and have an active approach towards solving the issue, whether they were scammed or otherwise,” said Rushdy Hakam, one of the developers behind Don’t Disturb .Us.
Explaining why their site maintains a purely functional framework, he notes that they needed to create a website quickly considering that the scammers are still very active in their cold-call cons.
Of late, phone scammers have noticeably become more bolder, impersonating as DHL messages (declaring that you have uncollected parcel) and even posing as police officers. Recipients of such calls would hear an automated Mandarin voice message instructing them to enter a number before tricking people into giving up personal information.
The most recent one involves the caller claiming to be an officer from the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) — a scam that sees phone numbers displayed as the MOM Contact Centre hotline.
Some basic rules to adhere to (and let your elderly relatives know about this too:
- Never reveal personal information such as your name, identification number, passport details, contact details, bank account or credit card details to strangers on the phone
- Never make live fund transfers
- Hang up immediately should the call sound suspicious and ignore the caller’s instructions
