The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Association of Banks in Singapore (ABS) said on 2 June that they will be introducing a “kill switch”, which is an emergency self-service measure, to help fight digital banking scams.
It is one of a few additional measures against scams that are being implemented by the banks progressively, and they will be in full effect by the end of October.
Kill switch
The “kill switch” allows customers to suspend their bank accounts swiftly if they think that their bank accounts have been compromised.
Other measures to be introduced include requiring additional confirmation to process significant changes to customer accounts and other high risk transactions.
Default transaction limits for online fund transfers will also be set at $5,000 or lower.
Anti scam centre
The rapid account freezing and fund recovery operations of the banks will also be co-locating their staff at the Singapore Police Force’s Anti Scam Centre, where fraud surveillance systems will also be enhanced to take into account a wider spectrum of scam scenarios.
They also encouraged bank customers to use mobile banking apps instead of web browsers to reduce the risk of navigating to fake, scam websites.
Customers are also advised to refer to official sources for hotline numbers and website addresses, turn on their in-app notifications of their banking apps, and never reveal their banking information to anyone.
They said that while the enhanced measures may lengthen the time for customers to complete online banking transactions, this is needed to achieve a greater level of security.