Police launch card and arcade-style games to educate youth about scams
To educate children and the youth about scams, the police launched an arcade-style game to be rolled out in public areas and a card game that will be distributed to schools.
This is to raise awareness about common scams like job scams, social media impersonation scams and phishing scams, which the police said have ensnared those aged between seven and 19 years old.
This group made up 7 per cent of victims in the first three months of the year, said a police spokesman.
The games were launched on Saturday (June 25) by Minister of State for Home Affairs and National Development Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim during the 22nd edition of the Delta League tournament.
The tournament, held from May 28 to June 25, was jointly organised with the National Crime Prevention Council, and used sports and e-sports to keep youngsters occupied during the school break.
The grand finale was held at Nexus International School in Aljunied.
Associate Professor Faishal played a round of the new arcade-style game, Scam Me If You Can, a five-minute interactive quiz played on a digital kiosk.
Players answer anti-scam quizzes on the touchscreen to gain points and can win a mystery prize dispensed from the machine.
The kiosk will be deployed at public locations with high footfall, starting with the Singapore Management University and Clementi Community Library at Clementi Mall next month before moving to other locations.
The police also launched ScamBat, a card game created with students from the Media, Arts and Design School of Singapore Polytechnic. Players draw from a deck of scam cards and check through their hand to see if they have a suitable defensive card to fend off the scam and earn points.
The game is meant to be a fun way to train players to recognise and react appropriately to scams, according to its rule book. By end-June, about 10,500 sets will be distributed to 385 schools, including polytechnics and universities.
The police spokesman said: "Scams continue to be a crime of concern that affects Singaporeans. We want to educate and raise awareness among Singaporeans on scams from an early age."
Last month, the police said that since the start of this year, more than $2.7 million had been swindled from at least 587 people in phishing scams, with culprits pretending to be friends. Earlier this month, it was reported that 67 victims lost over $71,000 to new scam variants in the first half of June.
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