Countering Online Scams
Major retail banks in Singapore progressively phase out One-Time Passwords (OTPs) for bank account login
9 July 2024
MAS and The Association of Banks in Singapore (ABS) announced that major retail banks in Singapore would progressively phase out the use of OTPs for bank account login by customers who are digital token users. This measure strengthens resilience against phishing scams by making it harder for scammers to fraudulently access a customer's account and funds without the customer’s explicit authorisation using his mobile device.
Major retail banks to introduce Singpass Face Verification (SFV), further strengthening resilience against phishing scams
18 September 2024
MAS and The Association of Banks in Singapore (ABS) announced that major retail banks in Singapore would progressively implement SFV to strengthen the digital token (DT) setup process for retail banking customers. SFV makes it more difficult for a scammer to take over a customer’s DT by setting it up on his own device using phished credentials such as an SMS, one-time passwords and/or bank card information.
Warnings on scams variants with a nexus to the financial sector
Ongoing
MAS and the Singapore Police Force (SPF) issued several joint media advisories to warn the public about upticks in multiple scam variants, including Government Official Impersonation Scams featuring the impersonation of officers from financial institutions and MAS, phishing scams involving the fraudulent provisioning of debit or credit cards into mobile wallets, and scams involving digital manipulation. MAS reminds the public to be vigilant and adopt precautionary measures against scammers.
- Joint MAS-SPF media advisory, published on 4 April 2025, on impersonation scams involving Chinese messaging and payment platforms
- Joint MAS-SPF media advisory, published on 2 April 2025, on scammers impersonating officials from MAS
- Joint MAS-SPF media advisory, published on 14 March 2025, on rise in Government Official Impersonation Scam variant featuring impersonation of MAS, NTUC Union and Unionpay
- Joint MAS-SPF media advisory, published on 12 March 2025, on scams involving digital manipulation
- Joint MAS-SPF media advisory, published on 28 February 2025, on scammers impersonating Shopee, UnionPay staff and officers from MAS
- Joint MAS-SPF-Cyber Security Agency of Singapore media release, published on 17 February 2025, on unauthorised card transactions made using contactless payment methods in Singapore
- Joint MAS-SPF media advisory, published on 30 November 2024, on rise in Government Official Impersonation Scam variant featuring impersonation of banks
- Joint MAS-SPF media advisory, published on 10 October 2024, on rise in Government Official Impersonation Scam variant featuring impersonation of banks
- Joint MAS-SPF media advisory, published on 27 July 2024, on uptick in Government Official Impersonation Scam variant featuring impersonation of banks
Implementation of Shared Responsibility Framework
24 October 2024
MAS and the Infocomm Media Development Authority of Singapore (IMDA) announced the implementation of the Shared Responsibility Framework (SRF) for phishing scams which assigns financial institutions (FIs) and telecommunication companies (Telcos) relevant duties to mitigate phishing scams, and sets expectations of payouts to affected scam victims where these duties are breached. The SRF will operate as part of the broader suite of upstream and downstream measures that Government, FIs, Telcos, and other ecosystem players have progressively implemented to tackle scams in Singapore. Beyond the SRF, banks also have their respective discretionary goodwill frameworks to support scam victims. The Government will continue to work with FIs and Telcos on other anti-scam measures to keep pace with the evolving scam landscape.
As part of the rollout of the SRF, e-wallet providers have also been onboarded to FIDReC, to provide their customers an independent dispute resolution. Customers may also use FIDReC’s dispute resolution services for other non-SRF-related disputes with e-wallet providers as FIDReC’s services extend beyond SRF-related matters.
- Oral parliamentary reply by Mr Alvin Tan, Minister of State, Ministry of Trade and Industry and Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth, and Board member of MAS, on 12 November 2024, in response to questions on the SRF
- Joint MAS-IMDA media release, published on 24 October 2024, on implementation of the SRF from 16 December 2024
- Written parliamentary reply by Mr Gan Kim Yong, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade and Industry, and Chairman of MAS, on 15 October 2024, in response to questions on the SRF