She used to lead a global fraud risk team
It happened in 2020, during the pandemic. Yong was in Singapore while her then-80-year-old mother, Boey Yut Wah, was in Malaysia. Because of travel restrictions, Yong could not visit her mother for close to two years.
In 2022, after borders re-opened, Yong finally visited Boey. That was when Boey told her that the bank had called to say she lost some money.
Rushing to the bank, Yong found out that her mother had fallen for a lucky draw scam. Under the guise of presenting Boey with a prize, scammers had tricked her into sharing banking details and emptied her account.
“It was not one bank account but five accounts in the same bank. They took a six-figure sum that my mum had saved after working for over 50 years as a primary school teacher and later, a kindergarten principal. They left around RM10 (S$3) in each account – around RM50 in total,” Yong told CNA Women.
This discovery affected Yong so much that the same year, she left her prestigious banking career to start White Byte.
From a small desk in her bedroom, the 53-year-old began designing scam prevention workshops for seniors. Today, the business has evolved into a digital literacy consultancy
Yong (right) with her mother, a retired primary school teacher and kindergarten principal, who was scammed of a six-figure sum in Malaysia. (Photo: Frances Yong)
On Aug 29, 2025, Yong was one of the honorees at the Singapore 100 Women in Tech (SG100WIT) 2025 awards, an initiative by the Singapore Computer Society and Infocomm Media Development Authority to celebrate inspiring women who have made significant contributions to the tech industry.
“When it first hit me that my mum was scammed, I was in denial. I thought, ‘It cannot be. My mum is educated. She speaks three languages’,” Yong said.
What affected Yong more was the psychological impact it had on Boey.
“My mum was dynamic, capable and positive. She drove, she gardened, she was very active in church. Although she is small – 1.2m tall – she walked a lot faster than us.
“After the scam, she became a shadow of who she was. She is slower, her shoulders are droopy, her mood dipped, and she became a lot quieter. She gave up socialising and does not want to try new things,” Yong said.
Yong remembers how her mum had saved the money from a modest school-teacher’s income over decades. (Photo: Frances Yong)
When told about the scam, Boey would say “I can’t remember”. She seemed to have blocked out the memory, Yong added.
Shortly after, she noticed that her mother’s driving became more erratic. Often, she would get into the car and forget where she was going. After a checkup, she was diagnosed with early dementia.
“I was angry with the scammers and I was angry with myself for allowing this to happen. Here I was, an informed professional teaching other people about cybersecurity, but I couldn’t protect my mother.”
Eventually, this anger spurred Yong to quit her banking job in September 2022 during a restructuring phase and set up White Byte two months later.
That’s how Yong went from talking cybersecurity to bank leaders in a boardroom, to teaching seniors in a community centre.
Though financial institutions had initiatives to educate the public on scams, less digitally savvy groups such as seniors and low-income women may not be able to grasp some of these messages, explained Yong. She wanted to customise workshops for them.
“Seniors have told me that they don’t have a computer. They don’t make transactions. They only watch YouTube or go to Facebook, so they don’t think they are vulnerable,” she said.
Yong is a digital literacy advocate and runs customised workshops for vulnerable groups to protect them from online harm. (Photo: White Byte)
Likewise, some low-income women also have the misconception that just because they do everything on their phone and do not use a computer, they cannot get hacked, she added.
Many are also not familiar with common concepts like phishing, and think it just refers to scams or fake news, she said.
So Yong’s workshops typically start with questions to find out the depth of participants’ understanding, before progressing to break down concepts for them, and reinforce learning with games and activities.
In some cases, Yong starts by helping participants better understand their phone and organise apps in folders. “The messier things are, the more likely things will get lost. This makes them more vulnerable because it’s harder to know which user
To help seniors and vulnerable groups better grasp concepts during workshops, Yong also works with volunteers to befriend and support participants in the ratio of one volunteer to one to three participants.
Today, this knowledge is more pertinent than ever before, Yong stressed. Post-pandemic, people are spending more time online and paying for more things digitally. This makes us more vulnerable to scams, she said.
“Technology has also gotten a lot more sophisticated, making it more convenient for scammers to scam,” she added.
Yong named her company White Byte because “white represents everything that’s good and ethical, and byte stands for bites of information. I want cyberspace to be a place of good”. (Photo: White Byte)
Pre-pandemic, some ways to spot phishing was to look for bad grammar, poor English, misspelling. Artificial intelligence (AI) software has solved that for scammers, she pointed out.
People also used to identify scam calls by listening out for foreign accents, even on calls that claimed to be local. AI-generated deep-fake voices have solved that for scammers, creating familiar accents, or even imitating the voice of a friend, she said.
Not just seniors, but anyone who is distracted and simultaneously in a time crunch can fall victim to scams because this causes them to be distracted and less vigilant, Yong added.
Yong (left) using the newspaper, a relatable tool for seniors, to help them understand the importance of spotting similar misinformation red flags when online. (Photo: White Byte)
General rules of thumb: Always pause when someone asks you to send money or personal details. Put down the phone, exit the email and try to reach the person or institution through a different channel to verify authenticity, Yong advised.
If your gut tells you something is wrong, check with a family member, or call the ScamShield hotline at 1799, she added. If you think something is suspicious, inform your bank, monitor it, block it, and file a police report straightaway.
“What’s the worst that could happen if you pause before acting on a ‘good deal’? Lose the good deal? It’s better than losing your entire savings,” she said.
Frances Yong, founder of White Byte, a consulting service empowering communities and companies to build a safer, more inclusive digital space, has these tips:
Use the bank’s money lock feature: Lock a set amount in your account to prevent it from being transferred out without additional authentication.
Use a digital wallet: Store money digitally on secure platforms like PayLah!, and use that for payment so that you do not have to expose your bank account details or balances to scammers.
Check dormant accounts periodically: Look out for suspicious activity or transfers.
Update bank notification settings: Ensure that you are informed of even small transactions such as S$10. Some scammers may make multiple transactions of less than S$10.
Be selective about calls and messages: Do not pick up calls from unknown numbers, and avoid forwarding WhatsApp messages, even harmless-looking ones like “Good morning”. Some images may carry malware and compromise everyone’s security.
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Yong has since conducted workshops for close to 4,000 individuals. Besides scam prevention, she offers digital literacy classes for low-income women to prep them for the workforce.
She also runs parenting workshops, sharing strategies to prevent grooming and sexual crimes among children and youth, and protect data and privacy.
However, because of the nature of the business, her company’s profits have been a far cry from her annual six-figure banking income. This year, her annual profit may only hit a modest four-figure sum, said the mother of twin sons aged 20 and a 24-year-old daughter, who sustains herself on her savings and other projects.
“If I can bring communities of people to come along with me on this journey, it could snowball into something bigger, and we can save more people from scams,” said Yong. (Photo: White Byte)
Through her work, she has heard stories of how families have fallen apart and relationships broken because of scams. “It’s not just about fighting for my mother anymore, it is about fighting for the community,” she said.
She is heartened to see her business gaining momentum in other important ways. Unable to employ salaried staff, White Byte has attracted 30 registered volunteers passionate about protecting others from online harm.
The impact of her work makes up for the income loss, Yong said. “There are many vulnerable individuals who cannot afford to lose their savings because that is all they have.”
CNA Women is a section on CNA Lifestyle that seeks to inform, empower and inspire the modern woman. If you have women-related news, issues and ideas to share with us, email CNAWomen [at] mediacorp.com.sg.
Continue reading...
It happened in 2020, during the pandemic. Yong was in Singapore while her then-80-year-old mother, Boey Yut Wah, was in Malaysia. Because of travel restrictions, Yong could not visit her mother for close to two years.
In 2022, after borders re-opened, Yong finally visited Boey. That was when Boey told her that the bank had called to say she lost some money.
Rushing to the bank, Yong found out that her mother had fallen for a lucky draw scam. Under the guise of presenting Boey with a prize, scammers had tricked her into sharing banking details and emptied her account.
“It was not one bank account but five accounts in the same bank. They took a six-figure sum that my mum had saved after working for over 50 years as a primary school teacher and later, a kindergarten principal. They left around RM10 (S$3) in each account – around RM50 in total,” Yong told CNA Women.
This discovery affected Yong so much that the same year, she left her prestigious banking career to start White Byte.
From a small desk in her bedroom, the 53-year-old began designing scam prevention workshops for seniors. Today, the business has evolved into a digital literacy consultancy
Yong (right) with her mother, a retired primary school teacher and kindergarten principal, who was scammed of a six-figure sum in Malaysia. (Photo: Frances Yong)
On Aug 29, 2025, Yong was one of the honorees at the Singapore 100 Women in Tech (SG100WIT) 2025 awards, an initiative by the Singapore Computer Society and Infocomm Media Development Authority to celebrate inspiring women who have made significant contributions to the tech industry.
FROM SELF-BLAME TO STARTUP
“When it first hit me that my mum was scammed, I was in denial. I thought, ‘It cannot be. My mum is educated. She speaks three languages’,” Yong said.
What affected Yong more was the psychological impact it had on Boey.
“My mum was dynamic, capable and positive. She drove, she gardened, she was very active in church. Although she is small – 1.2m tall – she walked a lot faster than us.
“After the scam, she became a shadow of who she was. She is slower, her shoulders are droopy, her mood dipped, and she became a lot quieter. She gave up socialising and does not want to try new things,” Yong said.
Yong remembers how her mum had saved the money from a modest school-teacher’s income over decades. (Photo: Frances Yong)
When told about the scam, Boey would say “I can’t remember”. She seemed to have blocked out the memory, Yong added.
Shortly after, she noticed that her mother’s driving became more erratic. Often, she would get into the car and forget where she was going. After a checkup, she was diagnosed with early dementia.
“I was angry with the scammers and I was angry with myself for allowing this to happen. Here I was, an informed professional teaching other people about cybersecurity, but I couldn’t protect my mother.”
Eventually, this anger spurred Yong to quit her banking job in September 2022 during a restructuring phase and set up White Byte two months later.
HELPING OTHERS STAY SAFE
That’s how Yong went from talking cybersecurity to bank leaders in a boardroom, to teaching seniors in a community centre.
Though financial institutions had initiatives to educate the public on scams, less digitally savvy groups such as seniors and low-income women may not be able to grasp some of these messages, explained Yong. She wanted to customise workshops for them.
“Seniors have told me that they don’t have a computer. They don’t make transactions. They only watch YouTube or go to Facebook, so they don’t think they are vulnerable,” she said.
Yong is a digital literacy advocate and runs customised workshops for vulnerable groups to protect them from online harm. (Photo: White Byte)
Likewise, some low-income women also have the misconception that just because they do everything on their phone and do not use a computer, they cannot get hacked, she added.
Many are also not familiar with common concepts like phishing, and think it just refers to scams or fake news, she said.
So Yong’s workshops typically start with questions to find out the depth of participants’ understanding, before progressing to break down concepts for them, and reinforce learning with games and activities.
In some cases, Yong starts by helping participants better understand their phone and organise apps in folders. “The messier things are, the more likely things will get lost. This makes them more vulnerable because it’s harder to know which user
To help seniors and vulnerable groups better grasp concepts during workshops, Yong also works with volunteers to befriend and support participants in the ratio of one volunteer to one to three participants.
SIMPLE STEPS TO STAY SAFE DIGITALLY
Today, this knowledge is more pertinent than ever before, Yong stressed. Post-pandemic, people are spending more time online and paying for more things digitally. This makes us more vulnerable to scams, she said.
“Technology has also gotten a lot more sophisticated, making it more convenient for scammers to scam,” she added.
Yong named her company White Byte because “white represents everything that’s good and ethical, and byte stands for bites of information. I want cyberspace to be a place of good”. (Photo: White Byte)
Pre-pandemic, some ways to spot phishing was to look for bad grammar, poor English, misspelling. Artificial intelligence (AI) software has solved that for scammers, she pointed out.
People also used to identify scam calls by listening out for foreign accents, even on calls that claimed to be local. AI-generated deep-fake voices have solved that for scammers, creating familiar accents, or even imitating the voice of a friend, she said.
Not just seniors, but anyone who is distracted and simultaneously in a time crunch can fall victim to scams because this causes them to be distracted and less vigilant, Yong added.
Yong (left) using the newspaper, a relatable tool for seniors, to help them understand the importance of spotting similar misinformation red flags when online. (Photo: White Byte)
General rules of thumb: Always pause when someone asks you to send money or personal details. Put down the phone, exit the email and try to reach the person or institution through a different channel to verify authenticity, Yong advised.
If your gut tells you something is wrong, check with a family member, or call the ScamShield hotline at 1799, she added. If you think something is suspicious, inform your bank, monitor it, block it, and file a police report straightaway.
“What’s the worst that could happen if you pause before acting on a ‘good deal’? Lose the good deal? It’s better than losing your entire savings,” she said.
SCAM PREVENTION TIPS FOR SENIORS
Frances Yong, founder of White Byte, a consulting service empowering communities and companies to build a safer, more inclusive digital space, has these tips:
Use the bank’s money lock feature: Lock a set amount in your account to prevent it from being transferred out without additional authentication.
Use a digital wallet: Store money digitally on secure platforms like PayLah!, and use that for payment so that you do not have to expose your bank account details or balances to scammers.
Check dormant accounts periodically: Look out for suspicious activity or transfers.
Update bank notification settings: Ensure that you are informed of even small transactions such as S$10. Some scammers may make multiple transactions of less than S$10.
Be selective about calls and messages: Do not pick up calls from unknown numbers, and avoid forwarding WhatsApp messages, even harmless-looking ones like “Good morning”. Some images may carry malware and compromise everyone’s security.
Collapse Expand
STARTING A DIGITAL LITERACY MOVEMENT
Yong has since conducted workshops for close to 4,000 individuals. Besides scam prevention, she offers digital literacy classes for low-income women to prep them for the workforce.
She also runs parenting workshops, sharing strategies to prevent grooming and sexual crimes among children and youth, and protect data and privacy.
However, because of the nature of the business, her company’s profits have been a far cry from her annual six-figure banking income. This year, her annual profit may only hit a modest four-figure sum, said the mother of twin sons aged 20 and a 24-year-old daughter, who sustains herself on her savings and other projects.
“If I can bring communities of people to come along with me on this journey, it could snowball into something bigger, and we can save more people from scams,” said Yong. (Photo: White Byte)
Through her work, she has heard stories of how families have fallen apart and relationships broken because of scams. “It’s not just about fighting for my mother anymore, it is about fighting for the community,” she said.
She is heartened to see her business gaining momentum in other important ways. Unable to employ salaried staff, White Byte has attracted 30 registered volunteers passionate about protecting others from online harm.
The impact of her work makes up for the income loss, Yong said. “There are many vulnerable individuals who cannot afford to lose their savings because that is all they have.”
CNA Women is a section on CNA Lifestyle that seeks to inform, empower and inspire the modern woman. If you have women-related news, issues and ideas to share with us, email CNAWomen [at] mediacorp.com.sg.
Continue reading...