Think you’ll never be a scam victim? Chances are you’re more likely to fall for one

SINGAPORE — Your match on an online dating app checks all your boxes for an ideal partner. She calls frequently, sends you photos, keeps you engaged and, in some instances, even gets her children to speak to you over the phone, begging you to join their family.

It all seems so real, but the reality is that it is part of an elaborate love scam to groom the victim, said Ms Carolyn Misir, the principal psychologist for the Singapore Police Force.

“This is what we call social proof because it reinforces the idea of whatever you are seeing here,” she said.

“It's also very persuasive because it's so emotive. That kind of reinforces all these ideas (that you have about the person), and so you get drawn into the scam,” she said.

Love scams are not the only tricks that Singaporeans need to be aware of, said Ms Misir, highlighting four others: Loan scams, credit for sex scams and impersonation scams.

The fourth on her list, e-commerce scams, is the most prevalent scam that Singaporeans fell for.

Ms Misir, whose work includes research in investigative and criminal psychology, was speaking to TODAY on Wednesday (July 10) on the sidelines of the 4th Asian Conference of Criminal and Operations Psychology, which is being held till Friday.

Held every three years, the four-day conference brings together experts from 13 countries in the field of law enforcement, criminal and operations psychology, and behavioural sciences to exchange ideas and best practices.

In her opening address at the conference, Mrs Josephine Teo, the Second Minister for Home Affairs, said that while scams are not new, the Internet and mobile phones have changed the landscape.

“In Singapore, overall crime had been falling and reached an all-time low of 582 cases per 100,000 population in 2017,” said Mrs Teo, who is also the Minister for Manpower.

She added that this trend was reversed last year due to cyber-related scams, such as e-commerce scams, credit-for-sex scams, Internet love scams and impersonation scams.

ANYONE CAN BE A VICTIM

She warned that when it comes to scams, no one is spared. “Successful businesspersons or professionals can also fall victim to scams.”

A study by the Police Psychological Services Division last year on love and impersonation scams found that demographic factors such as gender, education or income levels “do not significantly” influence an individual’s likelihood of succumbing to a scam.

Ms Misir said the study found the participants had an “optimism bias” that made them believe that they would never fall victim to a scam for a variety of reasons that include feeling safe in Singapore, or thinking they know enough to protect themselves.

“That kind of optimism bias brings down your inhibitions and lets you be a little more complacent and start to give away information (that can be used against you).”

In an example of optimism bias, Mrs Teo shared an example of how shoppers at Jurong Point were “scammed” by the police in March.

They were told they could purchase any upmarket brand of shoes of any size for S$30.

“Several shoppers believed and promptly paid up. Then, they were led to a room where they were shown videos on scam prevention,” said Mrs Teo.

SMART SCAMMERS

Scammers are “very, very smart”, said Ms Misir.

“They can use what you think is an innocuous kind of information that you put up online,” she said.

She gave an example where a bank decides to offer a promotion to its credit card users for them to celebrate their mother’s birthday.

In such a situation, she said someone might take a photo of the event and upload it on Facebook with a caption that may read something to the effect of: “I celebrated my mother’s XX birthday. Thanks to (name of bank) for giving us a treat.”

She said a scammer trawling the Internet could use this information to get the answers to an individual’s banking security questions, such as the age and name of his mother and even when his last credit card transaction was.

TOO GOOD A CHANCE TO PASS UP

In the course of her work, Ms Misir has found that scammers targeting Singaporeans originate from a variety of places.

Love scams, for instance, are often Nigerians working out of Malaysia.

Meanwhile, she admitted that it has been a challenge to locate the “kingpins” for impersonation scams as they tend to cover their tracks well.

Most of those caught are “lower in the hierarchy” and are typically from China or Taiwan.

Having interviewed some of them, she found that while they were aware of how strict Singapore’s laws are and the high likelihood of getting caught, they were nonetheless tempted to try scamming Singaporeans because the “return on investments is quite high”.

HOW CAN THE PUBLIC PROTECT THEMSELVES?

One way Singapore can raise awareness about scams is by having more experiential learning events, such as the one conducted at Jurong Point as the “experience stays with them”, said Ms Misir.

While it would be helpful for family members to look out for each other as well, she also encourages victims of previous scams to “destigmatise” it by sharing their experiences with others to let them know that anyone can fall victim.

In a keynote speech addressing the human factors in cyber scams, Professor Monica Whitty suggested other practical guidelines to safeguard oneself when it comes to online dating.

The chair in human factors in cyber security at the University of Melbourne’s school of culture and communications suggested taking one's time when it comes to evaluating if someone’s profile is genuine or not.

For instance, does it look like stock image?

In her list of guidelines, Prof Whitty also said one could do a reverse image search to see if the image might have been used by a criminal before, or if the image belongs to a different person.

“Are there any mismatches between what someone writes about age, race, height and weight and what their photograph looks like?”

She also warned people to be suspicious if the profile states an “unusually attractive” job, such as those in the military or modelling, as they are often used in scam profiles.

Other red flags include people claiming to be English speakers but are not fluent in the language, and those who overuse words such as trustworthy and honest.