Written Reply to Parliamentary Question on Whether for Scam Cases Police Ask Banks to Track Accounts Linked to Phone Numbers Involving PayNow Payments

Question:

Mr Dennis Tan Lip Fong: To ask the Minister for Home Affairs for scam cases where it is reported that a phone number has been given for payment purposes via PayNow, whether the police immediately reaches out to the banks in question to track the bank accounts used and stop further usage of PayNow for the relevant accounts immediately to prevent further acts of scam involving the same or other victims.

Answer:

Mr K Shanmugam, Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for Law:

1.   When investigating into reports on scams, Police will trace the flow of the funds, and swiftly freeze bank accounts suspected to be involved in the scammers’ operations. Frozen bank accounts will not be able to accept further transfers of money, including through PayNow.

2.   The swift freezing of bank accounts is done at the Anti-Scam Centre, where bank staff are co-located with Police. Since July 2022, six of the major banks in Singapore, namely, DBS, OCBC, UOB, Standard Chartered Bank, HSBC, and CIMB have co-located their staff at the Centre.