SINGAPORE - Starting on Jan 5, mobile phone users can opt in with their telecommunications providers to block all international calls, as part of a new slew of anti-scam measures to come in 2024.

Users can apply to disable calls from overseas by contacting the telecoms company via phone call or SMS, or through their telcos’ apps. The move cuts off a key communication tool for fraudsters as phone calls were ranked by the police as among the top three methods scammers used to contact victims.

The new security feature is among the measures that will be rolled out by the Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI) in 2024 as the authorities continue their war on scams, Communications and Information Minister Josephine Teo said in an interview with Chinese-language newspaper Lianhe Zaobao on Dec 18 on MCI’s digital priorities in 2024.

The authorities will also work with Google to improve anti-malware measures on Android phones amid the scourge of malware attacks, and set up a task force focused on maintaining cyber security and digital trust within Singapore, the minister said.

Mrs Teo, who is also Minister-in-charge of Smart Nation and Cybersecurity and Second Minister for Home Affairs, said: “Today, if you are alert, when you see a ‘+65’ and you know that it is not a real local call but that it is coming from overseas, you don’t answer it. But you find it very annoying.

“So, we are going to make available an option for people who do not expect to get any overseas calls in the first place to activate an option to totally block all overseas calls.”

Opting in

All incoming calls from international numbers to users who opt in for this feature will be blocked, but calls made from Singapore numbers, like those using overseas roaming to call home, will still be received, the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) said in a statement on Jan 4.

Subscribers can set the blocking option based on their needs, such as to enable blocking as a default but allow international calls to be received while they are travelling overseas.

IMDA aims to offer the option to block SMSes from international numbers by mid-2024 to restrict another common means of contact used by scammers.

Singapore receives roughly 1.6 billion international calls annually, including scam calls.

Roughly 300 million – or a quarter – of incoming calls from overseas numbers were suspected scam calls and were blocked by telcos between January and September 2023, said IMDA.

Scams over phone calls were the third most common means of contact for fraudsters after messaging and social media platforms, according to the police’s mid-2023 scam and cybercrime statistics. 

Fraudsters contacted victims through phone calls in 3,908 cases and via SMS in 920 cases, said the police.

But the change will not block scams carried out on communication services like WhatsApp – the platform of choice in the first half of 2023, according to the police.

The measure follows years of warnings to mobile phone users to be wary of calls with a “+65” prefix attached to the caller’s number.

“Speaking as a person with an elderly parent, I find this feature useful because I can then activate it for my parent’s mobile phone,” said Mrs Teo, adding that the feature will help stop vulnerable users from being tricked into picking up overseas scam calls.

The authorities also rolled out the ScamShield mobile app in 2020, which blocks incoming calls and messages based on a list of known scam numbers. Since 2023, organisations which have not signed up with an IMDA registry are also flagged to mobile phone users as “likely scam”.

New task force

Scams, system outages and other recent events have shaken the public’s trust in Singapore’s digital infrastructure, giving rise to a need for a newly commissioned task force to oversee matters of public confidence in the country’s digital services.

Dubbed the Taskforce on Resilience and Security of Digital Infrastructure and Services, the group comprises members from MCI, IMDA, the Smart Nation Group, Cyber Security Agency of Singapore and Government Technology Agency.

The task force will review security risks to Singapore’s digital services and recommend measures to improve cyber security, such as introducing guidelines for service providers and users and the performance of vendors employed by the authorities.

It will look beyond critical information infrastructure, like power plants and telecommunications services, Mrs Teo added.

MCI is also working with Google on improving anti-malware measures on Android devices from the likes of Samsung, Oppo and Google, to see how each device can filter out scams.

“We are working with them to improve the anti-malware measures to explore if the (device) can also serve as an additional layer of prevention,” said Mrs Teo.

Malware attacks, which grant hackers control of victims’ devices when a virus-laden app is installed, were a weapon of choice for fraudsters in 2023.

The police reported that more than 1,400 victims were duped by malware scams between January and August, with total losses amounting to at least $20.6 million.

The majority of malware scams have taken place on Android devices, which Mrs Teo said account for more than 60 per cent of smartphones used here.

Telcos and smartphone manufacturers have made moves to crack down on malware scams, such as by introducing anti-virus apps into mobile phone plans by default. Samsung Galaxy smartphone users can activate Auto Blocker on their device to deny app installations from unauthorised sources, which are commonly used to plant viruses.