In the first half of 2025, Singaporeans lost more than S$456 million to scams of all types. Phone calls remain one of the most common entry points.
The reason is simple: the voice on the other end of the line feels real. And now, thanks to advances in artificial intelligence, that voice might even sound like someone you know.
The Old Tricks Still Work
Not all scams are high-tech. Many are the same tricks that have been circulating for years:
- Fake “police” officers warning you about legal trouble.
- “Customs” or “courier” agents demanding payment for a held parcel.
- Bank officers “alerting” you to a suspicious transaction and asking for your details.
Despite endless advisories, people still fall for them. Fear, urgency, and authority bias combine to short-circuit rational thinking. A stern voice claiming to be from the SPF or ICA can make anyone panic.
What’s New in 2025
Where things get worrying is how these scams are evolving.
AI Voice Cloning
Scammers no longer need to stick to broken English. With just a few minutes of recorded audio — scraped from social media, podcasts, or leaked calls — they can now clone voices with startling accuracy.
A parent might hear their child’s exact voice crying for help. A finance staffer might hear the CFO’s familiar tone ordering an urgent transfer. And increasingly, scammers are training AIs on local accents and Singlish inflections, so the voice on the line doesn’t just sound human — it sounds Singaporean.
This is especially dangerous because it feeds directly into government-official impersonation scams, which cost victims about S$126.5 million in the first half of 2025 alone. When the “officer” on the phone speaks in an accent and cadence that feels familiar, the call becomes that much harder to doubt.
Caller ID Deepfakes
Until recently, many scams were easy to spot: overseas calls showed up with the +65 prefix even when the number claimed to be local. For a while, telcos and regulators clamped down, filtering out spoofed “+65” numbers so people could tell at a glance if something looked wrong.
That defence has now largely eroded. Scammers are bypassing those filters. Calls can display as if they are really from DBS, Singtel, or even official SPF hotlines, without the +65 giveaway. Some even inject logos and caller IDs to lend extra legitimacy.
The result? What used to be a clear red flag is gone. What appears on your screen can no longer be trusted.
Hybrid Attacks
We’re also seeing scams that start with a robocall (“Press 1 for assistance”), shift to a live scammer, and then follow up with a WhatsApp message. Each layer adds pressure and realism.
Next Step: Deepfake Video Calls
Voice cloning is only the beginning. The frontier is deepfake video calls.
Scammers are already experimenting with faked Zoom or WhatsApp calls where the “face” looks like your relative, colleague, or boss. And with AI models getting better by the month, early glitches — odd blinking, lip-sync issues, frozen frames — will soon pass the Turing test.
That means spotting technical flaws won’t be enough. Instead, look for behavioural telltales:
- Is the request unusual (e.g. money, OTPs, urgent transfers)?
- Is the caller pressuring you to act fast?
- Are they refusing to let you verify through another channel?
These are the real signs of a scam — not whether the video looks pixel-perfect.
The Psychology of the Call
Why are phone calls so effective when emails and texts get ignored?
Because a call demands your attention right now. You can’t skim, you can’t delay, you can’t quietly Google for clues. Add a stern voice claiming authority or a loved one sounding desperate, and your instinct is to respond immediately.
This is exploiting cognitive biases:
- Authority bias: obeying perceived figures of power.
- Urgency effect: reacting before thinking.
- Familiarity heuristic: trusting voices and accents that sound like “our own”.
How to Protect Yourself
Here’s the good news: you don’t need to be a cybersecurity expert to defend yourself.
- Pause First
- Scammers rely on you reacting instantly. Even a 10-second pause can break their script.
- Why it works: scammers build panic and urgency, and their scripts are designed for speed. Silence isn’t part of the plan. When you stop to think, the fear fades and you regain control.
- Verify via Official Channels
- If a bank, telco, or government agency calls you, hang up and call back using the official hotline from their website.
- Don’t trust the displayed number alone.
- Don’t Trust Appearances
- A familiar voice, or even a video call, is not proof.
- Always double-check through a separate channel.
- Filter Unknown Calls
- Some people set their phones so that only numbers saved in their contacts ring through. Everything else goes to voicemail or silent.
- Pros: blocks a huge volume of scam calls automatically, reduces distraction.
- Cons: not practical for business users who need to accept unknown numbers (e.g. clients, deliveries, job calls). You risk missing legitimate calls if you don’t check voicemails.
- Tip: if you don’t need to be reachable by unknown numbers, this is a strong additional layer of defence.
- Use Tools
- Install ScamShield and use your telco’s call filtering services.
- Report scam calls so numbers get blocked faster.
- Talk About It at Home
- Educate elderly relatives and children. Role-play scam scenarios so they know what to do.
If You’ve Been Targeted
- Disengage quickly — you don’t owe scammers politeness.
- Report: call the ScamShield Helpline at 1799.
- Contain the damage: If you gave away information, call your bank immediately, reset your accounts, and file a police report.
Closing Thoughts
Scams aren’t going away. They’re upgrading.
Today, it might be a cloned voice on the line. Tomorrow, it could be a deepfake face on a video call. Either way, the defence is the same: slow down, verify, and never act on impulse.
Because the moment you feel pressured to “just do it now” — that’s the moment the scammer is winning.
So talk about scams with your family before scammers do.