I suspect I've been scammed! What should I do?

Reacting fast after you have fallen prey to a scam is crucial. This gives you a change to recover your funds or at least prevent further losses.

As soon as you realise you may have fallen for a scam, your first steps should focus on stopping criminals from siphoning away more money.

Freeze your accounts

Contact your bank immediately to freeze your accounts, cancel your cards and/ or e-wallets. Your bank may have implemented a "kill switch", allowing you to freeze your own account.

Recovering your funds may not be possible all the time but if you respond quickly, it should at least stop more money from flowing out of your accounts.

Major retail banks have either introduced dedicated fraud hotline numbers or making it the first few options on the phone-banking menu for customers seeking help for scams. Find out these numbers from official sources such as the back of your bank ATM cards.

In some cases, scammers may try to continue conning you by promising to release your funds once you send across some fees.

They may pretend to be government officials or bank employees and ask for an upfront payment of fee to help you get back your stolen money.

Don't be duped! Once you suspect something is wrong, stop giving away more money.

Report to the police

After securing your accounts, lodge a police report online or at the nearest Neighbourhood Police Centre of Neighbourhood Police Post.

It is a good idea to report to the police while details are still fresh in your mind. Reporting your case quickly will help the police launch investigations early and potentially prevent more victims getting scammed. Your bank will also need a copy of the police report as soon as practicable.

Some of the details that will be useful for investigations include the date and time of the scam, the fraudulent website address or email address, and phone numbers used by the scammers.

Ways to protect yourself

Don't blame yourself if you have fallen prey to a scam.

Scammers are very good at what they do and are always coming up with new ruses.

Scammers have been known to put up online ads to direct unsuspecting individuals to phishing websites made to look like bank websites.

Use your banking apps to transact. Alternatively, bookmark the correct URL in your browser instead of googling for the address each time you want to log in.

While additional security measures have been put in place to protect consumers from scams, staying vigilant is critical.

Remember these important tips:

• Banks will not send you clickable links in emails or SMSes. Beware of links that appear to be sent from your banks.

• Government officials or bank officers will never call you to ask you for your personal information, such as your bank account, personal, SingPass or CPF-related information.

• Never share your banking information, such as your User IDs, Personal Identification Numbers, and One-Time Passwords (OTPs) with anyone.

• Government officials will not ask you to pay a deposit or fee to get the benefits you are entitled to, or transfer money to other bank accounts.

Keep up to date of the latest information, updates, and new types of scams by reading the news and visiting Scamshield.gov.sg. You could also help others by becoming a Crime Prevention Ambassador.