Infocomm Media Dev Agency (IMDA) Are IMDA, telcos doing enough to protect consumers from scam calls?
Scam calls have been an issue for Singapore society for the longest time, with elderly citizens often being the victims.

Even with all these reports of scam calls, neither the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) nor any of the telcos have stepped forward to offer a solution.

Browsing the comments sections of the telcos' social media pages, one finds generic recommendations of "We strongly advise users to block the number directly on the device itself as we are unable to do so on our end".

Telcos have been posting on online media platforms alerting users to scam calls, but it is clear that those who are most vulnerable, such as the elderly, do not use these platforms. Are IMDA and the telcos being proactive enough?

In the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, it seems as if there has been an increasing number of scam calls made to Singaporeans. Within just one week, I received four such calls.

In the past, these scam calls were usually masked with an overseas phone number. Recently, some of the scam calls are showing local numbers.

An attempt to call back any of the local numbers would lead one to a generic local telco answering machine, with a recorded message saying the number is currently unavailable. This shows that the local number is registered with one of the telcos in Singapore.

One wonders whether these phone numbers were bought by the scammers themselves and used to mask their calls for such activities.

Should a centralised phone repository be set up for Singaporeans to report and add such numbers to the database?

More importantly, should the telcos do their part to block, trace and investigate such numbers?

With today's technology, are IMDA and the telcos doing enough to protect Singaporeans, especially the elderly, from such scam calls?

Tan Hee Seng

Source: https://www.straitstimes.com/forum/are-imda-telcos-doing-enough-to-protect-consumers-from-scam-calls

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