Assessing sustained effectiveness of police scam interventions to guide improvements to intervention methods

Question:

Mr Gabriel Lam: To ask the Senior Minister, Coordinating Minister for National Security and Minister for Home Affairs since the Police do not track specified post-intervention scam outcomes (a) how sustained effectiveness is assessed; (b) what constraints prevent such tracking; and (c) whether the Ministry will pilot a sample-based evaluation of repeat victimisation to guide improvements to intervention methods.


Answer:

Mr K Shanmugam, Senior Minister, Coordinating Minister for National Security and Minister for Home Affairs:

1. The Member asked in an earlier Parliamentary Question (PQ) if the Police tracked the proportion of individuals who subsequently fell victim to scams and transferred money to the scammers after they had been warned by the Police that they might be a scam victim. The Police do not track such data.

2. Project A.S.T.R.O (Automation of Scam-fighting Tactics & Reaching Out) is a form of proactive intervention where Police send Short Message Services (SMSes) to alert potential victims after they had made transfers from their bank accounts to a suspected scam account. This serves to prompt these potential victims to make further checks and be more careful about any future transfers. In the first half of 2026, the Police and partner banks conducted three operations that alerted more than 9,180 potential scam victims.

3. The Police have not tracked the proportion of individuals who ceased money transfers upon intervention or subsequently resumed transfers to the same scam network. Given the scale of Project A.S.T.R.O, it would be resource intensive for Police to track this for all potential victims that were alerted via this manner.

4. The Police will consider the Member’s suggestion to pilot a sample-based evaluation study of the proportion of individuals that became victims of scams after receiving alerts under Project A.S.T.R.O.