How this 23-year-old helps people pause, check and stay protected from scams

A split-second hesitation – and four digits – saved her from a scam.

A woman in her 50s was just moments away from sending about $900 via PayNow to a DBS bank account, for what she believed was an insurance payment.

She had received a call from someone claiming to be from NTUC Income. The caller said her “trial insurance plan” had expired, and she now owed monthly premiums.

The “staff” guided her step by step on how to transfer the payment.

What followed was a flicker of doubt. Instead of pressing “send” on her PayNow screen, the woman hung up and dialled 1799, the 24-hour ScamShield helpline.

When ScamShield helpline agent Alyshah Fandy picked up the call, she immediately sensed the woman’s distress.

The 23-year-old has been working as a ScamShield call agent since the helpline was launched in September 2024.

Manned by over 10 agents and run by the National Crime Prevention Council (NCPC), the ScamShield helpline helps the public verify if a situation they’re facing could be a scam.

It’s part of the ScamShield Suite, which also includes a website (

scamshield.gov.sg

), a mobile application and a WhatsApp alert channel.

Calmly, Ms Alyshah guided the woman through the incident: who called, what they said, and what they asked her to do.

As the woman recounted the details, something clicked. “She realised, right there on the call, that it was a scam,” Ms Alyshah told The Straits Times.

The satisfaction derived from helping someone avoid becoming a scam victim, shares Ms Alyshah, is what makes her work meaningful and worthwhile – despite the 12-hour shifts.

As scams tactics grow more sophisticated, ScamShield call agents like Ms Alyshah are helping Singaporeans stop, think, and see through deception before it’s too late.

The ScamShield helpline provides the public with a simple, trusted way to “stop and check” when they’re unsure if something is a scam, says Senior Assistant Commissioner of Police Devrajan Bala, director of the Singapore Police Force’s Scam Public Education Office and executive director of the NCPC.

It offers potential scam victims a “cognitive break”, he adds, helping them slow down, think clearly and “better identify the situation they are in”.

Each day, the ScamShield helpline

receives between 500 and 700 calls

. Since its launch in September last year, its agents have handled over 128,000 calls and online chats on the ScamShield website.

About 80 per cent of the calls are from individuals checking if something they were facing was a scam.

The remaining calls often come from people seeking advice on how to stay safe.

Ms Alyshah recalls an elderly man in his 70s who was frustrated by near-daily scam calls. “I guided him through how to block unknown numbers (on his phone) and report (suspicious numbers) on the ScamShield app,” she says.

Beyond scam verification, ScamShield agents can also connect callers swiftly to their banks if they suspect their accounts have been compromised.

For Ms Alyshah, among the hardest cases are love and investment scams.

“It’s saddening,” she says, as “I’ve spoken to many (victims’) loved ones who are desperate because the victim refuses to believe it’s a scam”.

Ms Alyshah adds: “Some (love scam victims) are too emotionally invested, while others have put in too much money in investment scams and refuse to accept the truth (that they have been scammed).”

In many cases, Ms Alyshah and her colleagues try to speak directly with the victim to offer clarity. But sometimes, “victims (may) refuse to talk to us,” she explains.

What can family members do? “Reach out to the nearest Family Service Centre (which provides free family counselling services) for additional support, or to file a police report if money has been lost.”

Since becoming a ScamShield helpline agent, Ms Alyshah has become her family’s first line of defence against scams.

She ensures that her parents and grandmother have the ScamShield app installed on their phones.

“Whenever I see scam reports in the news,” Ms Alyshah says, “I’ll share them in our family group chat (to) make sure that they are up-to-date about (new) scam types.”