Chairman's Message

MESSAGE FROM CHAIRMAN

2022 was a memorable year as the National Crime Prevention Council held its belated 40th Anniversary Gala Dinner at the Marina Bay Sands. We had to postpone the event from 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. I was delighted to finally meet all the donors, stakeholders and supporters in person to commemorate a most joyous milestone.

NCPC was founded on 4 July 1981. Inaugurating the Council at the Hyatt Hotel, then Home Affairs Minister Mr Chua Sian Chin said the Council was an experiment in seeing if Singaporeans could be persuaded to accept measures not through force of law, but through persuasion based on the merits of the case. Preventable physical crimes like robbery, housebreaking and theft were rampant in the 1980s. Since then, Singaporeans have met the call not to do things only when forced, but to appreciate that crime prevention is a shared responsibility.

NCPC’s vision and mission still remains the same but the mode and type of crimes we face now are vastly different. Unthinkable four decades ago, crimes today are mostly taking place in cyberspace. In 2022, the number of scams and cybercrime cases in Singapore increased by 25.2% to 33,669 cases. As you may already know, the increase was again due to more scams reported by victims. The total number of scam cases shot up by 32.6% to 31,728 in 2022, from 23,933 cases in 2021. Sadly, the total amount cheated by scams jumped to $660.7 million in 2022 alone. In just two years from 2021 to 2022, Singaporeans lost close to $1.3 billion to scammers.

Collaborating with the police, private sector and the community, NCPC continued to devote much of its resources to fighting scams. The “I Can ACT Against Scams” campaign was launched to encourage everyone to proactively adopt anti-scam measures. The ScamShield mobile app, rolled out in November 2020, has been downloaded by close to 600,000 users. More than 7.4 million SMSes have been reported as potential scams, and more than 70,000 blacklisted phone numbers have been blocked by ScamShield to reduce opportunities for scammers to reach out to potential victims.

NCPC will press on to seek the support of our stakeholders to continue our fight against crime and keep Singapore safe. Last but definitely not the least, I would like to pay tribute to my fellow Council members, past and present – it is my privilege to be part of this great team. Thank you for your commitment, dedication and service to the nation!

GERALD SINGHAM , JP, BBM (L), PBM
Chairman, NCPC