A study by cloud communications provider Toku found that 87% of the 1,000 Singaporeans surveyed received a scam call recently. Three-quarters of them answered the call, with 10% falling prey and suffering monetary loss.
To restore trust in phone calls, Toku – which provides 60% coverage of all virtual numbers in Singapore – has joined the AB Handshake community to proactively fight against fraudulent calls.
The growing AB Handshake global community helps to serve the ever-evolving call fraud concerns by uniting telco service providers to provide the scale needed for cross-authentic call registries.
Within this community, telco service providers are ensured that all voice traffic exchanges will be free from major types of voice fraud. This creates an ecosystem for telco service providers to enable a safer call environment for their customers, which will lead to increased overall trust in their call services.
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Photos: Toku
“As a Singaporean company, we are committed to finding new ways of protecting the Singapore community from fraudulent calls that are affecting almost everyone. Call frauds are responsible for the loss of personal information, and the loss of billions of dollars for companies,” says Thomas Laboulle, founder and CEO of Toku.
He adds: “As phone scammers are increasingly using sophisticated tactics to run their call scams, we strive to restore trust back in phone calls by eliminating fraudulent calls.”
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Toku is currently in discussions with other telco players and regulatory bodies in Asia Pacific to build a framework for a fraud-free environment. The framework will provide an additional layer of validation to prevent call fraud, and instil trust in the system for users and businesses to interact seamlessly without worry or concerns.
Laboulle says: “Looking beyond Singapore, we are prepared to take this initiative to the other countries in the region where we operate, starting with Malaysia and Vietnam. With the telco players in these countries on board, we would be able to ensure that 179.58 million numbers are protected from fraud calls by the end of 2024.”
