From 1 October 2024, the Police Emergency Short Message Service (SMS) Sender ID 71999 will be discontinued and changed to 70999. This is part of efforts by the Ministry of Home Affairs to standardise the Sender IDs used by the Home Team Departments. (The Singapore Civil Defence Force uses the SMS Sender ID 70995 as part of its 995 emergency call service. It caters to callers who are hard-of-hearing or have speech impairments. They can correspond with SCDF by SMS at this number during emergencies such as fires or medical emergencies.)
The move is to improve the recognisability and recall of SMSes from the Home Team, and thereby help to protect the public against scammers who impersonate as being from the Home Team.
The Police Emergency SMS was introduced in 2016 as part of the SGSecure movement in Singapore. It allows individuals who require Police assistance in emergency situations where it is unsafe to have phone conversations, or individuals who are deaf, mute, or have a speech impairment, to correspond with the Police.
In non-emergency situations, the public is advised to send information via i-Witness, or use the e-Services available in the SPF website (https://eservices1.police.gov.sg) or Police@SG App, to lodge a police report.
SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE
27 September 2024 @ 3:00 PM