In the last couple of years, the number of cases of people being scammed online has risen gradually, and as the number of people become increasingly connected to the online world, so are the number of scammers. Scam cases, from online dating scams, winning lottery scams, free credit card scams, and of course the Nigerian prince who wants to send millions of dollars to your bank account scams are some of those that have been hitting innocent victims the most. Although many such reported cases are published online and on paper, many are still falling victims to such malicious incidents. Recent news by Channel News Asia reported that Singaporeans have been the main target of online scams and GET REAL even published a documentary about the victims of cyber/online scams.
According to the Singapore Police Force (SPF), there were 16,575 crime cases recorded in the first six months of 2015, an increase of 6.7 per cent over the same period of 2014. In the latest report by the SPF, a total of 33,608 cases were recorded last year, up from 32,315 cases in 2014. Online commercial crimes rose by 95 per cent to 3,759 cases, up from 1,929 cases in 2014 which made Singapore’s crime up to 4% driven mostly by cybercrime.
This presentation aims to share and discuss on the growing threat industrial complex driven by cyber crime and specifically cyber scams. We will share our analysis on the countries (Nigeria, China, Philippines, India) involved, how advanced social engineering has helped evolve the techniques and modus operandi used by cyber scammers, the impact it has made in Singapore and why Singapore has been a huge target in South East Asia.