Mobile subscribers in Singapore can now instruct their carrier to block all incoming calls from international numbers, as part of the government's efforts to curb the growing volume of online scams targeting the local population.
The option is available to customers of the country's four mobile operators: M1, StarHub, Singtel, and Simba, formerly called TPG Telecom.
More than 300 million scam calls made from international numbers were blocked by the telcos between January and September last year, according to industry regulator Infocomm Media Development Authority.
Some 1.6 billion international calls a year are received in Singapore.
Those figures point to one blocked call for every four incoming calls from international numbers, IMDA said, adding that it has been working with local telcos to roll out various measures to curb scams.
These measures have included the blocking of international calls that clocked unusually high frequency, which typically indicated they were triggered by automated scan systems.
This measure helped cut the number of SMS scam cases by 70% in three months after it was rolled out.
The new blocking measure will enable mobile users to choose to bar all international calls, IMDA said in a statement.
Calls made from Singapore while subscribers are overseas will still be put through.
Users can also choose to enable the call-blocking feature by default, but have it disabled when they are overseas, so international calls from their hotel operator or ground transport provider can be received.
The service can be activated via call, SMS, or via the telco's app.
According to local police, 103 victims lost more than SG$161,000 to phishing scams in December alone.
These scammers impersonated banks through spoofed SMS messages to extract information on victims' online banking usernames and passwords, including one-time passwords.
Phishing attacks were the leading type of scam in Singapore in 2022, clocking 7,097 reported cases, up 41.3% from 2021, according to figures from the Singapore Police Force.
The government in October laid out a framework detailing parties that should be held responsible for phishing scams, with banks and telcos taking on accountability for the first line of defense.
In the proposed shared responsibility framework, Singapore said financial institutions are critical as gatekeepers against the outflow of funds due to scams, while telcos play a supporting role as infrastructure providers of SMS, which is often used by scammers to communicate with targeted victims.
Singtel said its Scam Call Protect service blocks at least 30 million scam calls and 20 million scam messages each month.
The telco said its subscribers can activate the international call-blocking service via its mobile app or by calling in.
Some 18 million international calls from such numbers were made in the first nine months of 2023, of which 12 million were identified as spoof calls and blocked.
This figure is a 97% dip compared to 700 million calls over the same period in 2022.
This Cyber News was published on www.zdnet.com. Publication date: Fri, 05 Jan 2024 11:13:05 +0000