What happens when fraud becomes almost impossible for even experts to spot?

In Singapore, more than $2.7 billion has been lost to fraud since 2019.

For perspective, this number would be equivalent to 90 high-end bungalows, assuming each residence costs around $30 million.

The numbers are expected to rise further, with victims losing a a record of over $385.6 million in the first half of 2024.

Singaporean authorities are trying to combat this scourge by introducing laws and regulations, as well as conducting awareness campaigns.

In 2020, the National Crime Prevention Council partnered with the Singapore Police Force to launch an anti-fraud campaign under the slogan “Find the signs. Stop the crimes.»

It focused on educating the public on how to spot the various signs of fraud, including looking for deals that sound too good to be true and e-commerce sellers that haven’t been vetted.

The campaign received an updated slogan “I can ACT against scammers” in 2023 with the acronym ACT, which describes how members of the public can add security features, check for signs and report fraud to authorities and others.

But fraudsters also read news and recommendations, and have proven time and time again that they can quickly adapt and find new ways to bypass anti-fraud checks.

By the time tips on how to avoid scams are out in the open, scammers will have come up with new tricks to trick victims into parting with their money.

With the addition of new technologies and AI, it becomes even harder for the authorities to keep up.

Mr. Horji Abraham, Managing Director of Gasa, gave several examples of how anti-fraud measures have been thwarted.

He said the public had previously been told they could tell if a website was secure by checking if it started with “https” instead of “http”, meaning the site was secured with a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate.

“But now SSL certificates are free and every scam site has an SSL certificate,” he said.