SG consumers trust organisations less after getting scam messages: survey

Around 41% lose trust over an organisation regardless of any real association with the fraudster.

A total of 41% of Singapore consumers trust organisations less after receiving a scam message, regardless of whether the company has a real association with the message.

According to a survey, conducted by Callsign, industries most targeted by fraudsters are financial services and public sector organisations.

Consumers have also said that of all scam messages they receive, 59% claim to represent their bank, whilst 44% claim to represent a public sector provider.

“The global pandemic, unfortunately, provided an opportunity for fraudsters to ramp up their activities using the same channels as legitimate providers use to authenticate genuine consumers,” Namrata Jolly, general manager for Asia Pacific, Callsign, said.

“This has harmed the reputation of brands because, in the eyes of consumers, they are unable to keep sensitive information secure.  The situation is made worse, as indicated by the research, that most scams go unreported.”

Based on global data, Callsign said individuals receive 1,133 scam messages across all channels per year on average.

Despite this, more than half or 52% of Singapore consumers note that they do not report messages from scammers.

Moreover, the survey found that for consumers the weakest communication channel appears to be SMS with only 9% thinking it is a safe channel to communicate with their bank or retailer; and the channel has seen a 55% decrease in trust from those surveyed just because they have received a scam text message.

“Organisations must embrace new technologies to interact with customers instead of relying on channels that are favoured by fraudsters to extract sensitive personal information,” Jolly also said.

“Our research overwhelmingly shows 36% of consumers think identity is the problem and that people should prove who they are when signing up to use a platform to stop scammers.”