“The best we can do is to try to recover what some of them have lost. We try to fundraise a bit for that worker so he doesn’t feel like his entire life savings have been lost in a scam,” she said.
MIGRANT WORKERS AFRAID TO SPEAK UP
Migrant workers are also generally afraid to speak up as they fear losing their jobs, or have their work permits revoked – all this despite them being the victims of scams, said Ms Dipa.
“I think creating a framework where they can speak up and share experiences – maybe even a migrant worker support group – without any external intervention … would be helpful I feel,” she said.
“Among each other, they can share instances and examples of how they’ve been scammed, so that they become aware that this is increasingly happening to all of them. And then each one becomes a little bit more vigilant.”
She is also suggesting setting up a platform for workers to check if something is genuine, such as a hotline.
Mr Joshua said he believes the initiatives are working, and that more could have been lost if not for them.
“There’s no way to prevent this 100 per cent, but what we can do is to create as much awareness as we can among workers to refrain from such activities,” he said.
“Scammers will always look for those workers who have not been enlightened or find more creative ways of reaching victims. So it’s always a cat and mouse game, and I think the chase will always be on and we should just keep doing what we do,” he added.
The police are also urging migrant workers to use its ScamShield app, in addition to working with MOM to help produce advisories in the native languages of their colleagues.
“Combating scams is a community effort, and we want all readers to spread the word around – ignore calls requesting for personal information and passwords and download the ScamShield app to guard against scams,” said Mr Sheik Ismail.
