SINGAPORE - As a ScamShield helpline operator, Ms Ashley Teh responds to an average of about 50 calls a day from anxious members of the public.

But one victim had an impact on her, and it was her friend who lost $25,000 to a job scam.

Ms Teh, 26, is one of more than 10 agents running the

24-hour

helpline, 1799, launched in September 2024 to answer scam-related queries from the public.

In its early days, it got about 30 calls a day. Now, agents receive 500 to 700 calls and messages daily .

In just a year, it has received over 128,000 enquiries, with about 80 per cent of the calls to verify if material they received was a scam.

The helpline is run by the National Crime Prevention Council (NCPC).

To accommodate the increasing call volume, it relocated its operations from Police Cantonment Complex in New Bridge Road to Certis East Coast at Bedok South Avenue 1 in July.

A ceremony was held at its new premises on Sept 15 to mark the helpline’s first anniversary and launch the new operations centre, which can accommodate more than 10 agents, up from six previously.

Each agent occupies a cubicle where they help to verify material from the public, sometimes calming them down .

She said: “Sometimes callers want us to listen to them, because they might be too embarrassed to (admit they were scammed).”

She said the most fulfilling part of the job is knowing she is helping someone every day.

Her training came in useful when her close friend, also 26, lost $25,000 to a job scam in July.

Said Ms Teh: “I was the first person she spoke to. It impacted me because I didn’t think someone so young could fall for a job scam.”

ScamShield helpline operator Ashley Teh responds to an average of about 50 calls a day from anxious members of the public.

ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI

One person the agents helped was a man who received a call from a fraudster claiming to be a UnionPay officer, who said the man’s personal information was used to purchase a $1 million insurance plan in Malaysia.

The man was instructed to withdraw $40,000 in cash and hand it to an “undercover officer” for investigations.

Sensing something fishy, the man called the helpline , who prevented him from losing any money.

To continue combating the scam scourge, NCPC chairman, Mr Gerald Singham, said they are planning to use their artificial intelligence chat box more, to allow their agents to spend more time with callers.

On Aug 30, the police had said

$456.4 million was lost to scams

from January to June 2025 - a drop from the $522.4 million lost during the same period in 2024.

Despite the dip in losses, the number of government official impersonation scams almost tripled in the first half of 2025, with 1,762 cases compared to 589 in the first half of 2024.

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Minister for Digital Development and Information Josephine Teo said on Sept 13 a decrease in scam losses may not indicate a downward trend.

She was speaking at the launch of

a new national cyber-security campaign, themed Stop and Check

. It reminds the public to check unsolicited text messages and calls with official sources, to avoid getting scammed.

She said: “The one thing we have learnt about scammers is that they don’t stay still. They are constantly looking for new vulnerabilities.”

Mr Singham added : “Scams don’t target based on demographic, but rather those who are uninformed.

“Add ScamShield (to your phone) so that it helps to block out SMSes and calls. If you’re not sure, call 1799.”

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