Latest news with #anti-scam
RNZ News
10-07-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
New government 'alliance' formed to combat online scammers
The new structure will help "seal up the cracks that scammers are slipping through". Photo: 123rf The coalition government is promising a crackdown on financial con-artists, bringing together agencies, industry and consumer groups to shut down online scams. As part of the new 'Anti-Scam Alliance', officials would work with police, major banks, telcos and digital platforms to increase data and intelligence sharing. Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Scott Simpson said more information would be shared in real-time, allowing a quicker response to threats. "Up until this point, New Zealand's anti-scam efforts have developed in an ad hoc way and suffered from a lack of coordination," Simpson said. "We frequently hear that real-time information on scams is sourced from different areas across government and the private sector, making for a fragmented and often slow response." Simpson said the new formalised structure would help "seal up the cracks that scammers are slipping through". As well, participants committed to rolling out public education campaigns and training programmes, and to set up or update sector guidelines. Work on the plan would continue for the next six months, before rollout early next year. Simpson said he was also considering legislative changes - including amendments to the Fair Trading Act - to allow for more pro-active intelligence sharing and collaboration, without breaching privacy or competition laws. "There is no silver bullet to address scams, but by working together across sectors to disrupt scams, we can significantly shift the dial." The alliance includes: Banking Association chief executive Roger Beaumont said the announcement was a step in the right direction towards a co-ordinated multi-sector approach. "Banks cannot fight scams alone," he said. "Scams typically start when people are deceived by fake websites and search engine results, fake emails, texts, social media ads and chats, and phone calls, so there's a role for telcos, social media companies and global tech platforms to help stop them in the first place." Beaumont said banks had significantly stepped up their scam prevention efforts, including through the rollout of a new confirmation-of-payee service. He said the Code of Banking Practice would also be updated this year, with a commitment to provide pre-transaction warnings for certain payments, identify high-risk transactions, provide a 24/7 scam reporting channel and share information about accounts used by criminals with other banks. "Where banks fail to meet those commitments, they will compensate all or part of the loss for eligible customers," Beaumont said. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
South China Morning Post
09-07-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Hong Kong tech and telecoms giants unite to combat online fraud
Hong Kong's major social media, messaging platform providers and telecoms firms have pledged to strengthen checks on advertisers' identities and remove fraudulent advertisements embedded with phishing links. Seven social media or messaging platforms and six telecommunications companies have joined the Hong Kong Monetary Authority's (HKMA) Anti-scam Consumer Protection Charter 3.0. The initiative commits them to proactively detecting fraud on their platforms and networks, as well as cooperating with the HKMA and other financial regulators. 'To combat these evolving threats, it is crucial to collaborate with technology and telecommunications partners to tackle the problem at the platform level,' Eddie Yue Wai-man, chief executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, said at the charter's launch ceremony on Wednesday. The seven participants from the technology sector were Douyin, Google, Meta, Microsoft, WeChat, Weibo and RedNote, while the six from the telecommunications industry were China Mobile Hong Kong, China Unicom (Hong Kong) Operations, HGC Global Communications, HKT, Hutchison Telecommunications and SmarTone Mobile Communications. The participants pledged to adhere to six principles to combat fraud on their platforms.
CNA
09-07-2025
- Entertainment
- CNA
‘Revenge on Gold Diggers': Why a Chinese dating scam game went viral
SINGAPORE: While out on a food delivery, a young Chinese rider meets a girl and falls head over heels in love. But this meet-cute does not have a happy ending. The man is quickly manipulated by his new girlfriend who steals all his money by asking for expensive dinners and luxury gifts. This is a storyline from a recently released live-action video game Revenge on Gold Diggers, which has sparked intense interest and debate across China. Billed as China's first interactive anti-scam video game, players assume the role of Wu Yulun, the game's male protagonist, who had once fallen prey to a pig-butchering love scam. Determined to get even, Wu embarks on a mission to infiltrate a crime syndicate led by several women who con lovelorn men out of their money before vanishing into thin air. Since its release on Jun 19, the game has sold over one million copies, soaring to the top of gaming charts - and even surpassing Black Myth: Wukong at one point on the leading global gaming platform Steam. It has also garnered rave reviews for its realistic and interactive gameplay and storylines. At the same time, it is being slammed for portraying misogynistic and harmful gender stereotypes. 'Its provocative anti-scam content is infuriating,' wrote one user who goes by the handle Uncle You, adding that the game was 'cheap entertainment barely elevated from lowbrow clickbait'. Writing on the Sina Weibo microblogging site, a feminist blogger who goes by the user handle Always-bebrave, criticised the game for 'forcibly associating women with emotional fraud'. 'Real anti-fraud education should make people see how power can harm relationships, rather than teaching people how to hate a certain gender,' she said. 'This is what happens when a video game relies on manufactured conflict, fabricated storylines and playing the victim card for clout,' said another female gaming blogger on Weibo by the handle Qiufengyuan. TAPPING INTO SCAM PARANOIA Ongoing social anxiety about scams, combined with polarising discourse around gender inequality and dating culture in China are some reasons the game went viral, according to Shen Cuihua from the University of California, Davis. 'No matter where you stand on this issue, a polarising and emotionally charged story usually gets people worked up, and it can be highly shareable - perfect for short-form video platforms such as Douyin and Xiaohongshu,' Shen said. According to a report by China's Supreme People's Court published in March, around 40,000 cases of telecom fraud, involving 82,000 people, were recorded in 2024 - marking an annual increase of more than 26 per cent. Love scams, including pig-butchering schemes, are classified under telecom fraud - an umbrella term for scams that exploit victims through digital communication tools. Pig-butchering, or 'sha zhu pan' in Mandarin, refers to a common scam tactic in which victims are 'fattened up' through weeks or months of developing an online relationship. Once trust is established, scammers strike - defrauding victims of their hard-earned savings, effectively 'slaughtering the pig'. The game's developers said they drew inspiration from real-life experiences, insisting that the storylines were intended to explore broader and more complex gender themes - with no intention of vilifying women. But as outrage grew and online backlash continued, the game's Chinese title was changed from Lao Nǚ You Xi, meaning 'Gold Digger Game', to Emotional Anti-Fraud Simulator. Its English title, Revenge on Gold Diggers, remains unchanged. Many took offence at the usage of the Chinese term lao nǚ, often used in a derogatory manner to describe scheming gold diggers who take advantage of men for their personal gain. Sun Jing, a game scholar and associate professor at the Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, said the game was 'clearly male-oriented' and also 'reinforced prejudice against women' - showcasing women as 'dominating, manipulative gold diggers' while portraying men as 'innocent victims and brave avengers'. 'Recent years have seen growing discussion on gender issues in China, including among gaming communities,' Sun said, pointing to recent hit Chinese video games like Love is All Around, an interactive romance game. 'Games are usually (developed for) two mainstream perspectives: misogynists and feminists,' she added. 'In this case, Revenge on Gold Diggers is clearly designed to appeal to the first group.' SEXIST TROPES Daniel Ahmad from video games market research firm Niko Partners noted the growing popularity of interactive simulation games among Chinese gamers, which feature lifelike characters and branching storylines. 'This game is mostly about taking revenge on women said to be 'catfishing' or emotionally manipulating men with the goal of taking their money,' he said, adding that 'players made their own choices (over) eight hours of live-action content and more than 200 decision points'. 'The situation underscores the delicate balance required when tackling sensitive societal issues through video games - not just in China but also globally,' he said. 'The game (plays out) more like a film rather than a (conventional) video game. It's interactive, educational and uses gaming as a medium to strike up conversations about social topics - progressive or conservative,' said Zoe Zhao, an assistant professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Gamers who spoke to CNA shared mixed reviews. Fa Zai, a gaming blogger, said the game's storyline was 'meaningful and realistic'. 'Good guys and bad guys are everywhere - there's no need to argue. If this game made you uncomfortable, I guess it hit a nerve somewhere.' Liu Dayuan, a 29-year-old gamer, said he had never experienced the situations depicted in the game. 'So it's hard to imagine what it would be like if it happened to me.' Another player, who went by the handle MMY, said the game's plot about 'pursuing gold diggers' was obviously unrealistic but offered an intriguing plot line. 'The dialogue does feel pretty real - maybe some of the conversational tactics are used in real-life,' he said. Shen brought up the 'mean world syndrome' condition - which shapes how people view the world from TV, video games and other media - perceiving the world to be more dangerous than it actually is. 'In this case, it's possible that gamers heavily exposed to the game's narratives might start to see women as being stereotypical gold diggers - and intimate relationships as merely transactional,' she said. 'And over time, this might lead to a distorted view of dating and gender roles, especially among young and socially isolated gamers.'
Malay Mail
05-06-2025
- Business
- Malay Mail
Global anti-scam blitz: 106 nabbed, S$7.7m seized in Singapore; Malaysia among seven countries in joint operation
SINGAPORE, June 5 — A month-long transnational anti-scam operation involving seven territories led to the arrest of over 1,800 people, including 106 in Singapore, and the seizure of more than S$7.69 million (RM25 million) locally, police said. Conducted from April 28 to May 28, the operation involved collaboration between Singapore's Anti-Scam Command and agencies in Hong Kong, South Korea, Malaysia, Maldives, Thailand, and Macau, according to a report in The Straits Times today. Those arrested in Singapore were linked to over 1,300 scam cases, which resulted in losses of about S$39.3 million, the Singapore Police Force said. In total, more than 33,900 people aged between 14 and 81 were investigated across all participating territories for involvement in over 9,200 scam cases, with victims reporting losses exceeding S$289 million. In total, more than 33,900 people aged between 14 and 81 were investigated across all participating territories for involvement in over 9,200 scam cases, with victims reporting losses exceeding S$289 million. — Singapore Police Force pic The scam types targeted included government official impersonation, investment scams, rental scams, internet love scams, friend impersonation scams, job scams, and e-commerce scams. Singaporean suspects are being investigated for offences such as abetting cheating, unauthorised computer access, assisting in criminal conduct, and unlawful disclosure of passwords or access codes tied to national digital identity services. Director of the Commercial Affairs Department David Chew said the joint operation underscores the need for a unified global response to tackle increasingly sophisticated scam syndicates. He highlighted the role of Operation Frontier+, a cross-border anti-scam platform launched in October 2024 that now includes 10 jurisdictions, in enhancing intelligence-sharing and coordinated enforcement. Chew added that the initiative is working to expand its network to improve global enforcement efforts and ensure scammers have no safe haven.
CNA
04-06-2025
- Business
- CNA
More than 1,800 people arrested in transnational anti-scam operation involving SPF; 106 nabbed in Singapore
SINGAPORE: Over 1,800 people were arrested during a month-long anti-scam operation by law enforcement authorities from seven Asian jurisdictions. Victims of the scam cases reportedly lost over S$289 million (US$225 million), the Singapore Police Force (SPF) said in a news release on Wednesday (Jun 4). Law enforcement agencies from Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, Malaysia, Maldives, Thailand and Macau conducted the operation between Apr 28 and May 28. An additional 33,900 people are being investigated for their suspected involvement in scam activities. Those arrested or investigated, aged between 14 and 81, are believed to be involved in more than 9,200 scam cases. The cases comprised mainly government official scams, investment scams, rental scams and internet love scams among others. More than 32,600 bank accounts suspected of being linked to scams were detected and frozen by the authorities. Over S$26.2 million was seized from the bank accounts. SINGAPORE INVESTIGATIONS In Singapore, 106 people were arrested and 545 individuals were investigated. The police said these suspects were involved in more than 1,300 local scam cases which resulted in losses of about S$39.3 million. More than S$7.69 million was also seized from 714 frozen bank accounts. Further investigations against all these suspects are still ongoing, said the police, adding that they are looking into offences such as abetment to cheating and unlawful disclosure of password or access code in relation to the national digital identity service. The police also noted two separate cases of Chinese services impersonation scams in end-April where victims were instructed to transfer S$25,000 and $45,000 respectively to local bank accounts provided by the scammer. Singapore's Anti-Scam Centre found that part of their funds were sent to bank accounts in Malaysia on the same day, SPF added. More than S$19,000 in total was recovered from the bank accounts in Malaysia with assistance from Malaysia's National Scam Response Centre. SPF's Commercial Affairs Department Director David Chew noted the need for a transnational response to transnational threats in today's world. 'In today's digital age, scam syndicates operate without geographical constraints, employing increasingly sophisticated methods across multiple jurisdictions to defraud victims and launder their illicit proceeds,' he said. 'No single jurisdiction has an adequate answer to this scourge, but we are collectively stronger together.' He also lauded the effectiveness of Operation Frontier+, the cross-border anti-scam collaboration platform that enables law enforcement agencies to work together. Operation Frontier+ comprises representatives from ten jurisdictions - Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Thailand, Maldives, South Korea, Australia, Macau, Canada and Indonesia. 'Operation FRONTIER+ epitomises the effectiveness of international cooperation in fighting scams. This joint effort demonstrates our shared commitment to disrupting transnational scam syndicates,' Mr Chew said. 'We will continue strengthening these international partnerships to ensure our citizens are safe from scams and scammers have no safe haven.'
