Stop Scams Podcast: Cryptocurrency scams: Not just those in their 20s to 30s fall prey – even elderly are targeted

In the series’ seventh episode, ST’s crime correspondent David Sun, business correspondent Claire Huang, and journalist Jessie Lim speak with Fiona Choong, vice president of compliance at cryptocurrency exchange Coinhako.

Ms Choong will cover the common kinds of scams involving cryptocurrency and what precautions cryptocurrency users can take against them.

Highlights (click/tap above):

2:18 How a man in his 70s fell prey to a ‘tech support’ scam, and how his life savings of over S$400,000 was saved

5:50 Most active crypto customers are in the 20 to 30 age range; risk rules and safeguards covering various ages

11:00 Know-your-client (KYC) and financial literacy standards: How to uphold them, especially in Singapore?

18:20 Are there scams involving cryptocurrency giveaways, also known as ‘drops’, a marketing strategy that involves sending coins or tokens to wallet addresses?

26:40 Constantly evolving products such as non-fungible tokens and Web 3.0 a challenge for compliance officers when detecting scams

28:25 Love scam uncovered: When a man tried to withdraw a large amount of crypto to purportedly buy a piece of property for his ‘girlfriend’

32:07 Measures to take to avoid falling to cryptocurrency scams: how fear, greed and loneliness are exploited by scammers

Read ST’s Stop Scams articles: https://str.sg/wWt9

Produced by: Jessie Lim (ljessie@sph.com.sg), David Sun (davidsun@sph.com.sg), Claire Huang (claire@sph.com.sg), Ernest Luis and Eden Soh

Edited by: Eden Soh

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