We thank Mr Sim Ghee Choon for the suggestions in his letter (Make it easier to check on fund-raisers; Forum Online, July 12).

The Collector's Certificate of Authority issued by the National Council of Social Service (NCSS) and the Singapore Police Force (SPF) includes a QR code.

Members of the public can check if the fund-raiser has a valid House to House and Street Collections Licence by scanning the code with a smartphone.

The Office of the Commissioner of Charities is working on incorporating the QR code function in all permits issued for fund-raising appeals.

Apart from the QR code verification method, members of the public can also use the following methods to verify the authenticity of the collections when being approached by collectors:

•Send a query via SMS to 79777 using the following format: "FR"

•Perform a search using the online fund-raising permit search facility via the Charity Portal (https://www.charities.gov.sg), NCSS website (https://www.ncss.gov.sg/ Fund-Raising-Permits.aspx) or SPF website (https://www.police.gov.sg)

•Use the Police@SG smartphone application. (Download the Police@SG application, and go to "More Links" to access the Charities and Fund-Raising search engine of the Charity Portal)

Sim Hui Ting (Ms)

Deputy Commissioner of Charities