TR EMERITUS

Just the first half of 2024, there is a record 26,587 reported scam cases. And here comes the staggering stats. Losses exceeded $385.6 million.

That means nearly $400m transferred hands, from the innocent individuals to the scammers, the lambs to the wolves. I believe that these are hard-earned money, and even savings for retirement.

Mind you, they are reported cases. We have no figures about those who gave away their life savings but rather keep quiet about it because they don’t want their adult children to find it out, for fear of incurring their wrath or disappointment.

I know of a close friend who was being scammed too, and it is a painful experience. A costly lesson.
We lodged a police report but there is little the police could do. These scammers are faceless, hiding behind the cloak of anonymity. They can be anywhere, across the causeway, across a few borders, operating from an out-of-reach location.

They are also a few scammers removed, down the line. They set up a clandestine system where they control the dough and exploit the rest of the hirelings, who work for them behind the scene. And they have no conscience. They act with absolute impunity.

To the scammers, the victims are just a means to an end. They are faceless too. The victim on the other side of the digital line is just a target.

Everything follows a script and the hired scammers just play it out. They are conscientiously trained, some at gunpoint. And they are paid peanuts, if at all. Some scammers are young recruits who themselves are victims, sold to an organisation that hold them against their will and their loved ones in ransom.

The masterminds will stop at nothing as long as there is money to be made. And if hundreds of millions can transfer hands within 6 months, from honest hands that labour in earnest to dishonest ones that steal without conscience, you can rest assured crooks will make a thriving business out of it.

I can imagine a global moral meter, and it measures how we respond in such situations.

Of course, there will be people who live with integrity and sacrifice for others. They rather live upright lives with what little they have than to live in opulence with ill-gotten gains. The world is indeed blessed by such people who leave this world a better place.

But this moral meter often tilts to the other end too. Through the exploitation of technology, they reap effortlessly by cheating and robbing, leaving a trail of innocent victims with nothing left for their retirement.

The lesson here is to fight back. Stay vigilant. Lottery strike don’t happen without queuing up for a ticket. Money don’t fall from the sky. Your default position with such seemingly well-intended strangers, who come from nowhere, and ask you for money or password, is to hang up.

Alternatively, double, if not, triple check that charming voice or disarming text message with people you trust. Give it as much time as possible. You are in no hurry.

Remember, your life-savings can be emptied with just one or two clicks. It can happen before you can say, “How come?”

These scammers can be sipping latte in some godforsaken island and be a few thousand of dollars richer in a second or two.

Unlike bank robbers who have to risk arrest and bullet wounds when they force counter clerks to empty the vault, these scammers can sell you hope and companionship for a lifetime, and at the same time, rob you of a lifetime of savings right under your nose.

So, when in doubt, walk away.

The article below by law lecturer Ben Chester Cheong is a good read about the measures set in place to thwart the illicit global transfer of wealth for the benefit of crooks.

It works on the demand and supply side of things, where law enforcers are given the powers, as a last resort, (that is, restriction orders) to halt certain banking transactions, if all the the red flags are raised that a scam is in progress.

On the bank side, there is the Shared Responsibility Framework, which will kick in on 16 Dec, where banks and service providers will block or hold suspicious transactions exceeding $25k for 24 hours, and further imposing a 12-hour cooling-off period for large transfers.

All these are proactive steps taken to staunch the bleeding, in a world where the wolves are raising their standards to rob us. We must fight back and set a high wall to push them back.

Michael Han