Police trying squid game approach?
Say you opened your mailbox and found an envelope, seemingly from the Singapore police, with this warning: “Do not ignore this letter”. What would you do?
(a) Ignore it
(b) Panic
(c) Check if it’s genuine
(d) Put it on social media
Well it is genuine, and some recipients opted for (d).
The mailer campaign by the police and the National Crime Prevention Council led to one netizen sharing a photo of the envelope saying it had “squid game vibes”.
Reactions varied. One comment on Reddit said “perhaps its the new invitation to a game where if you win, all charges against you are dropped”.
Others found it suspicious.
“That is as shady as it gets, there is no post mark, there is no addressee,” said one.
Photos were also posted on Hardware Zone, where a comment said: “Letter saying it is from Singapore Police? Scam sign.”
But some also found it effective. “Not a bad way to get attention,” said one comment.
Another said: “If this is a legit letter, then yikes! I love when Singaporean institutions make legit communications that are practically indistinguishable from scams.”
Inside the envelope was an anti-scam leaflet and a letter from the police asking residents to be on the alert against scammers.
It is part of the anti-scam campaign "Spot the signs, stop the crimes" launched in August 2020, Asiaone reported.
In the first half of 2021, Singapore saw a 16 per cent increase in the number of reported scam cases, with a total of $168 million lost.
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