PSA shows S’pore ICA officer getting call from scammer posing as… an ICA officer

Scam calls are high up on the list of serious problems affecting regular folks today, and the problem has gotten to the point where millions of dollars and critical personal data have been lost or compromised by unsuspecting victims to these predatory crooks. Despite being a country with relatively strict law enforcement, the problem isn’t diminished in Singapore, where scammers are still harming innocent people who just don’t know any better. In a public service announcement video, the Singaporean Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) showed how such a scenario played out when a scammer pretending to be an ICA officer rang up an actual officer working at the agency.

In the exchange, ICA officer Kelvin Teo is shown answering a scam call from a fake automated ICA call system, which informs him of an issue with his passport, and prompts him to press “5” in order to speak with a customer service representative. Teo obliges, and is transferred to a man who claims to be working for the ICA. In poor English, the man asks Teo for his name — to which Teo gives as a fictional “Dong Bee Lee” — before going on to process his “file”.

The scammer then tells Teo that the check on the supposed Mr. Dong’s passport returned faulty, and that a corresponding NRIC (national registration identity card) number would be needed to fix the problem. Still playing along as Dong Bee Lee, Teo argued that the ICA should already have his details, although the scammer replied by insisting on an NRIC number, or else Dong’s passport would be canceled if he failed to cooperate.

Resisting again, Teo said that he’d prefer to meet up with the “officer” in person, to which the scammer said that he worked at the ICA headquarters. Upon hearing this, Teo finally ended his ruse and revealed to the scammer that he was actually an employee with the ICA at the agency’s headquarters. “Wait, wait, wait.

I’m also an ICA officer working at the headquarters. And we will never ask for personal details. That’s why I don’t believe you!” said Teo to the man on the line, who then promptly hung up.

The conversation lasted two minutes, and ended in a short message from Teo informing viewers of the warning signs to look out for when dealing with identity scammers, such as calls originating from numbers beginning with “+65” , pre-recorded voice messages , and demands for personal details . In the comments section, aside from a number of comments praising Teo’s good looks, many others claimed that they had also been subject to similar calls in the past, and begged for the authorities to produce more of such videos for the sake of awareness and education. In April this year, the ICA also reported an increase in scam calls relating to passport issues — similar to the one in the video.

“Some of the calls included an automated voice message informing the recipients that their passport applications have been rejected or their passports have been canceled,” the agency had said in a Facebook post. “Other calls involved the alleged scammers asking for the recipients’ personal details, such as their NRIC number. ” For those living in Singapore with official documents issued by the government, such warnings and PSAs should serve as a reminder to never divulge important personal details, and to always look out for red flags when accepting calls from officers claiming to represent agencies such as the ICA.

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