You will be able to check whether a call or message is genuine without using any detail the caller gave you.
The call comes in and your phone shows your bank's name. The caller knows your full name and the last four digits of your card. She says there's a pending transfer of S$2,300 to an overseas account and asks if you made it. You didn't, so she offers to cancel it, as long as you confirm a few details first.
Everything about this call seems to check out, and that's what makes it dangerous. In this lesson you'll learn one move that works whether the call is real or fake: hang up and call back on a number you found yourself. It takes a couple of minutes and doesn't depend on you judging whether the caller sounds genuine.
Most people trust caller ID without thinking about it. If the screen says the name of your bank, or shows a number you recognise, the call must be from them. But caller ID can be faked. Scammers use technology that lets them choose which number appears on your phone, and if that number is saved in your contacts, your phone will show the name you saved with it.
The same goes for the personal details the caller reads out. Your name, your NRIC number, your address and part of your card number may have been exposed in a data leak, bought from someone else, or collected from an earlier scam message you replied to. A caller who knows things about you has done some homework, and that tells you nothing about who they work for.
So the question "is this call real?" is one you can't answer from inside the call. Everything you'd use to judge it can be controlled by the person on the other end. The only way to be sure is to leave that call and start a new one that you control.
When a caller claims to be from your bank, a government agency or any organisation that holds your money, do this.
Say you'll call them back, and hang up. You don't need to explain or apologise. "I'll call the bank directly, thank you" is enough.
Find the number yourself. The best sources are the number printed on the back of your bank card, the contact page of the official website that you typed into your browser yourself, or the contact details inside the organisation's official app. Never use a number the caller gave you, a number from an SMS or email, or a number from a search engine ad, which scammers sometimes pay for.
Then give it a minute, or use a different phone. This step matters most on a landline. With some phone systems, a caller who doesn't hang up can keep the line open, so when you dial out you're still connected to them, and someone pretending to be the bank picks up. On a mobile phone this is much less likely, but waiting a minute or calling from another phone costs you nothing.
Call the official number and explain what happened. Ask whether the bank tried to contact you and whether there's anything wrong with your account. If there was a real problem, the bank's staff will find it on their system.
People often hesitate to hang up because it feels rude, or because they worry they'll lose their chance to stop a fraud in progress. Both worries are understandable, and neither holds up.
A real bank's fraud team will not be offended that you checked. Banks and the police actively tell customers to do exactly this. If there truly is a suspicious transaction on your account, the bank can see it and act on it when you call back. Your call-back loses you a few minutes. Not checking can lose you your savings.
Notice how the caller reacts when you say you'll call back. A genuine caller will usually agree straight away, and may even suggest it. A scammer often pushes back: the transaction will go through in five minutes, the line will be recorded as uncooperative, you'll have to start the case again. That pressure to stay on the line is your answer.
Here's how the opening call might end differently. Priya, a 28-year-old designer, gets the call about the S$2,300 transfer. She says she'll call the bank herself, and the caller says there's no time. Priya hangs up anyway. She doesn't redial the number on her screen. Instead she turns her card over, finds the hotline printed on the back and calls it a minute later. The bank's agent checks her account and finds no pending transfer. The call was a scam, and the "details" the caller wanted to confirm were her login and one-time password.
The call-back only takes minutes when the number is easy to find. Under pressure, searching for your bank's hotline is exactly when you might click an ad or a fake result. It's much safer to find the number now, on a calm day, from your bank's official website, and keep it where you can reach it in seconds.
Save your bank's official hotline from its website into your contacts under a clear name, so you never need to search for it under pressure.
Junxiong-WFG Organisation is an authorised representative of AIA Financial Advisers Private Limited (Reg. No. 201715016G).