A TikToker has spoken out about PayNow’s upcoming nickname removal, saying the feature was something he relied on to protect himself from scams.
In a video posted on Wednesday (29 April), content creator Ben Wong, 27, known as @Benwhoah, shared why he disagrees with the move.
The change comes after the Association of Banks in Singapore (ABS) announced that PayNow’s nickname feature will be discontinued from 6 June 2026 as part of efforts to combat impersonation scams.
For illustration purposes only
While nicknames were originally introduced to give users more privacy, banks said scammers have exploited them by using misleading identities to pose as trusted individuals or businesses.
With the update, users will instead see a partially masked version of the recipient’s registered account name during transfers, a move meant to ensure names are tied to verified accounts while still limiting full name exposure.
Source: The Association of Banks in Singapore
ABS said this would make it harder for scammers to “masquerade as legitimate entities”.
However, Ben argued that the change may not be as effective as intended.
In his TikTok video, he pointed to his PayNow nickname, “Tan Ah Gao Sanchez Chut Ke Ai”, as more than just a joke.
“It’s not just a nickname,” he said. “It’s a brand identity to protect me from scammers.”
Source: @Benwhoah on TikTok
He explained that having a distinct alias made it easier to verify transactions and spot anything suspicious.
“Now scammers will know my actual full government name,” he said. “You are literally opening the door [to scammers] and inviting them in to scam me even harder.”
Now they cannot call me ‘Chut Ke Ai’, now they call me Benedict. So how am I supposed to know if it’s a scam or not?
Source: @Benwhoah on TikTok
He added that even with partial masking, it may still be possible to infer someone’s identity.
His concerns mirror what some PayNow users had already been doing prior to the change.
In March this year, a Reddit post highlighted how easily someone could retrieve a person’s full name simply by entering their mobile number into PayNow.
“Realised that with your mobile number, anyone could enter it . . . and see your full name,” the user wrote.
The post quickly gained traction, with others sharing that they had switched to initials or nicknames to reduce the risk of being targeted by scammers.
Some also adopted humorous or obscure aliases to make it harder for strangers to identify them.
For these users, the nickname feature went beyond aesthetics. It offered a degree of control over how they were identified in transactions, making it easier to recognise payments from known contacts, flag anything unusual, and avoid exposing their full legal names.
Over time, this became an informal but widely used way for users to manage privacy and guard against scams.
Also read: PayNow to remove nickname feature from 6 June in bid to tackle rising scams
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Featured image adapted from @Benwhoah on TikTok and by TheSmartLocal (for illustration purposes only).