• Published on 1 February 2024
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Maybank Singapore launches anti-scam campaign

Maybank Singapore (Maybank) launched its latest creative “Let’s Lay Off Scammers" campaign which offers a novel perspective from the scammers’ view - who are vexed that their scam tactics fail to deceive their target victims to part with their hard-earned cash, which ultimately put them out of their scam jobs.

The campaign as conceptualised by M&C Saatchi Singapore, shows the behind-the-scenes’ portrayals of how scammers operate with the common scam typologies such as impersonation scams, with touches of humour and realism. It offers a glimpse into a possible outcome where scammers are unable to exploit more victims and a rally call that encourages individuals to learn key tips of the various scam tactics and how to protect themselves - fostering a collective effort to put a stop to the scammers’ ploys.

The “Let’s Lay Off Scammers" campaign comprises three videos titled “Elevator”, “Impersonation Department” and “Call Centre”, which was first launched on Maybank Singapore’s owned channels – Facebook, Youtube and website, on 1 November 2023. The videos garnered over 3,459,173 completed video views (as of 24 January), since its launch.

Helena Ooi, head of strategy, at Maybank explained: "This campaign is integral to our ongoing scam education efforts to build greater awareness and actions that we can all take against scams. We created the three videos’ scenarios based on the most common types of scams that many of us are susceptible to. The campaign rally call of “Let’s Lay Off Scammers” is a proactive stance to have an always-on vigilance against scam tactics by knowing and doing the “dos” and “don’ts” as well.”

With an unprecedented rise in scam cases globally where scammers stole an estimated $1.02 trillion (SGD 1.4 trillion) between August 2022 and August 2023, it is concerning that scam victims in Singapore lost the most money on average. Last year, the Singapore Police Force reported over 7,000 phishing cases with victims losing SGD 16.5 million ($12.3 million) as scammers used tactics such as impersonating officials or trusted entities to trick them into revealing their credit card details and bank account information.

“In an era where digital transformation is the way forward, it is increasingly important to distinguish between authenticity and deception, and to safeguard our digital ecosystem. And we can do this together by spotting the red flags and being updated with the latest scam protection measures,” she added.

Re-disseminated by The Asian Banker