Gerald Giam on Protection from Scams Bill

Scams are an evolving threat, and the Protection from Scams Bill takes an important step forward with its focus on “emergency brakes” to mitigate harm in individual cases, said MP Gerald Giam. Speaking in Parliament on Tuesday (Jan 7), he pointed out that the scope of the Bill “remains narrow”. To effectively combat scams, Singapore needs more systemic safeguards that address the root causes and build resilience across platforms, he said. These systemic safeguards include deploying real-time fraud detection for digital wallet transactions, enhancing mechanisms to flag suspicious payees and creating a centralised scam database accessible to banks, telcos and social media companies for real-time monitoring and blocking. Mr Giam said together, these measures will ensure more robust prevention, swift enforcement and shared responsibility in protecting Singaporeans from scams.