Do not reply to such an SMS or call. Do not interact in any way.

Unsolicited SMSes or calls from unknown sources that are related to loans, financial assistance or online gambling are likely to be associated with unlicensed moneylending and illegal gambling activities. The PDPC investigates all complaints regarding unsolicited telemarketing SMSes or calls seriously. However, unlicensed moneylending and illegal gambling are serious criminal offences in Singapore where the Police are the relevant authority to investigate such offences. If you receive such SMSes or calls, please notify the Police directly by: 

• lodging a Police Report;
• calling the National Crime Prevention Council's 'X Ah Long' Hotline at 1800-924-5664 (1800-X-AH-LONG); or
• providing information via I-Witness.

Complaints received by the PDPC relating to such activities will be referred to the Police.

The DNC Registry lets you opt out of marketing messages addressed to your Singapore telephone number, such as those which promote or advertise goods or services, allowing you to have more control over the kind of messages you receive on your telephone, mobile telephone, or fax machine.

Organisations are required to check the DNC Registry within 30 days before sending any telemarketing message. Therefore, you should not receive telemarketing messages from organisations, which are covered by the scope of the DNC Registry, 30 days after registration.

Organisations are generally not allowed to collect, use or disclose your NRIC number (or copy of your NRIC). They may do so only if it is required under the law (or an exception under the PDPA applies) or necessary to accurately establish or verify your identity to a high degree of fidelity.

Registration of telephone numbers on the DNC Registry does not expire. Your registration will only be removed when you terminate your number, or when you remove your number from the DNC Registry.

Registration with the DNC Registry is free-of-charge.

Where there is no intention to obtain control or possession of your physical NRIC for the purpose of establishing or verifying your identity, and no personal data is retained once the NRIC is immediately returned to you, the PDPC does not consider it to be a collection of personal data.

The DNC Registry accepts registration of only 8-digit Singapore telephone numbers, including mobile, home and office numbers. Any Singapore number that begins with 3, 6, 8 or 9 can be registered. Please note that access to the device of the number that is being registered is required.

For registration of office phone numbers, in general, only the account-holder or subscriber of the telephone line should register the telephone number on the DNC Registry. Where the account-holder or subscriber of the telephone line is the organisation and not the employee, employees should seek permission of the organisation if they wish to register their business numbers. In any case, the sending of Business-to-Business (B2B) marketing messages is not currently covered by the requirements relating to the DNC Registry.

Generally, the security guard should inform visitors of the purposes for the collection, use and disclosure of their personal data and obtain their consent. Even if the visitor does not expressly consent, if the visitor has been informed that his personal data is required for a particular purpose (for example, security purposes for entry into the premises), and he voluntarily provides the data, the visitor may be deemed to have given his consent to the collection, use or disclosure of his personal data for that purpose.

The PDPA requires (amongst other things) that an organisation only collects, uses or discloses personal data for purposes that a reasonable person would consider appropriate in the circumstances and also make reasonable security arrangements to protect personal data collected in order to prevent unauthorised access, collection, use, disclosure, copying, modification, disposal or similar risks.

In the event that an organisation collects, uses or discloses your NRIC number contrary to the positions set out in the PDPC's advisory guidelines after 1 September 2019, you may lodge a complaint with the PDPC. We will investigate the matter to establish whether there is a breach of the PDPA. If the failure to adhere to the guidance provided results in a breach of the Data Protection Provisions, the penalties under the PDPA will apply.

Scam messages generally do not promote goods, services, suppliers of goods and services, and are thus unlikely to be specified messages for the purposes of the DNC provisions. If you suspect that the call or message you received is a scam, you are advised to notify the Police by:

• lodging a Police Report;
• calling the National Crime Prevention Council's 'X Ah Long' Hotline at 1800-924-5664 (1800-X-AH-LONG); or
• providing information via I-Witness.