With Singaporeans falling victim to scams every day, even its Prime Minister has not been spared.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, in his last media interview as PM, shared that he himself has been a victim of a scam.
Source: Ministry of Communications and Information via Lee Hsien Loong on Facebook
He also said the Government is concerned that more Singaporeans are falling prey and losing their hard-earned money.
PM Lee revealed his experience getting scammed in an interview with the local Chinese media aired on Friday (10 May).
In a discussion about social media and the Internet, he was asked whether he’d been fooled before by fraudulent activity over the Internet.
It turned out that he had, when he bought something “he thought was real” — but it never arrived.
Source: Prime Minister’s Office on YouTube
Later, he checked the URL of the website he used and it had the domain name “.en”, which belongs to Estonia.
Perhaps that country has different regulations from us, or someone borrowed the location, he supposed, adding:
The Internet is colourful, but also a big headache.
Other times, scammers have used PM Lee’s identity in an attempt to lure victims.
He has received screenshots of such scams from angry people, and it has become so commonplace that his only reaction is to tell people not to get angry and calm down.
The authorities will take action, he had said, and sometimes he will take to Facebook to warn people.
However, his Facebook profile can’t be like a bank app, regularly reminding people not to be fooled by fake videos, he said.
With more Singaporeans falling for scams and losing large amounts of money, the Government is concerned, PM Lee said.
About S$660 million is lost to scams every year, he noted, with Singaporeans losing close to S$2 million every day.
If that amount of money was the result of a robbery, it would be earth-shaking to Singaporeans, he said, adding:
This is someone’s hard-earned money, perhaps an elderly person’s life savings for the last 20 to 30 years of his life, but it’s gone overnight.
Describing such a situation as “heartbreaking”, he said though the Government may have done its best to help, there’s still scope to ponder what more can be done.
Perhaps we should learn how not to be deceived, he added, pointing out that even intelligent people can be scammed.
As an example, he said bank staff who try to stop customers from being scammed may get scolded by people who think they know what they’re doing.
One way to guard against scams is for children to be taught how to ask questions about fake news, Mr Lee suggested.
When they see a piece of news, they should ask whether it’s credible, who sent it and what’s their motive, among other questions, he said, adding:
If you see a news item saying Lee Hsien Loong is selling Bitcoin, it’s best to check it out, because unless there is something wrong with me the Internet is playing tricks.
Otherwise, fake news is a difficult problem to solve, especially with technologies such as deepfakes and artificial intelligence, he admitted.
As people with bad intentions always have new tricks up their sleeve, it’s an ever-changing problem and the country may not have a way to fight it all the time, he said.
It’s something that has to be continually deal with, and it’s not just Singapore — other countries have this challenge too, he added.
Read the full transcript of his interview in Mandarin here.
Also read: PM Lee Warns Of Crypto Scams & Fake Ads Using His Image, Urges Public Not To Respond
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Featured image adapted from Prime Minister’s Office on YouTube.
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