Singapore orders Meta to implement anti-scam measures

3/9/2025 17:43

Singapore police have

ordered Meta to implement anti-scam measures against

advertisements, accounts, profiles and business pages

impersonating key government office holders on its social media

network Facebook to combat scams, a government minister said.



The company could be fined up to S$1 million ($775,698) if

it fails to comply as part of the first such order under the

nation's new Online Criminal Harms Act, which came into force in

February 2024.



"We are issuing (the order) to Meta because Facebook is the

top platform used by scammers for such impersonation scams, and

the police has assessed that more decisive action is required to

curb these scams," Minister of State for Home Affairs Goh Pei

Ming said in a speech on Wednesday.



In August, Singapore's home affairs ministry found that more

than a third of all e-commerce scams reported in 2024 were

perpetrated on Facebook. It also rated Facebook Marketplace as

the weakest among six e-commerce marketplaces in terms of

anti-scam features deployed.



A Meta spokesperson said on Wednesday that the company had

specialised systems to detect impersonating accounts, including

facial recognition technology, and it had invested heavily in

improving detection and review teams. It also shares tips on

avoiding scams and offers tools to report potential violations,

the spokesperson said.



"We also rolled out advertiser verification and continue

working with law enforcement and take legal action against the

criminals behind these scams," they added.



Police statistics released in August showed that scams that

involved the impersonation of government officials almost

tripled to 1,762 cases in the first half of 2025, from 589 cases

in the same period a year ago. A total of S$126.5 million was

lost to this type of scam in the same period, up 88% from the

S$67.2 million lost a year ago.



The home affairs ministry acknowledged Facebook Marketplace

has required "enhanced user verification measures" for select

sellers in Singapore since 2024, and that it introduced

in-product safety notices, as well as anti-scam notices within

its messaging functions to warn users of the risk of e-commerce

scams.



Those measures were deployed after earlier criticism by the

government over the company's failure to put in place safeguards

that protect users from scams.