GovTech Steps Up Singpass Policing to Fight Scams

Agency's anti-fraud team hunts down unusual activities round the clock

- Irene Tham

Multi-coloured lights flash for several seconds as Singpass scans users' faces before the authentication tool lets them bank or transact online.

This feature activates randomly or when cyber intrusion is suspected, drawing on the intelligence gathered by an elusive anti-fraud team at the Government Technology Agency (GovTech).

Facial verification protects citizens' online accounts by matching their faces with government records in real time. It deters remote online activities on users' accounts, including malware infections, without their knowledge.

The heightened checks have come on the heels of a spate of phishing scams in 2021 and 2022 targeting OCBC customers, who lost a total of about $13.7 million.

The incident, and the discovery that scammers had also targeted Singpass accounts, prompted GovTech to set up its anti-fraud team in 2022.

Since then, its intrepid fraud response specialists, data analysts and data scientists have been hunting down unusual Singpass activities round the clock. They rely on fraud analytics and machine learning models to monitor account activities and alert the police. The police may direct GovTech to suspend compromised Singpass accounts.

Stolen Singpass accounts had been used to open bank accounts and register mobile lines to conduct fraudulent activities.

"Scammers are always looking for ways to bypass banks and our defences to create fraudulent bank accounts. So, we have to stay ahead of them," said Mr Woo Chia Hann, who leads anti-fraud intelligence and response in the Singpass anti-fraud team, on Aug 25.