Meta facing fine of up to $1m as S'pore police issue first online harms order to fight scams

For the first time, the police will issue an order to an online platform to tackle the scam scourge in Singapore, with possible fines of up to $1 million.

In a tougher show of force, the implementation directive to tech company Meta, which runs Facebook, is meant to fight scams including government officials impersonation scams (GOIS).

The firm will have to implement measures to address scam advertisements, accounts, profiles and business pages impersonating key Government office holders on Facebook.

If Meta fails to comply, they can be fined up to $1 million.

This is the first implementation directive issued to an online service provider in Singapore under the Online Criminal Harms Act (Ocha), since the law came into force in February 2024.

Senior Minister of State for Home Affairs Goh Pei Ming announced this on Sept 3 during his remarks at the Global Anti-Scam Summit Asia 2025 held at the Suntec Singapore Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Noting the rise in GOIS, Mr Goh said on the second day of the Summit the tougher measure was made because Facebook is the top platform used by scammers for such scams.

He added: "The police have assessed that more decisive action is required to curb these scams."

Police mid-year statistics released on Aug 30 showed GOIS have almost tripled, with 1,762 cases reported in the first half of 2025 compared with 589 over the same period in 2024.

Victims lost $126.5 million in the first six months of 2025, a 90 per cent increase compared with $67.2 million in the first half of 2024.

Several accounts or posts on Facebook impersonating Prime Minister Lawrence Wong and former Minister for Defence Ng Eng Hen popped up earlier in the year.

PM Wong had warned the public in March against fake Facebook advertisements using deepfakes or his images to sell cryptocurrency, money-making schemes or permanent resident application services.

Mr Goh said the government is enhancing its measures against such impersonation scams, and will continue to work closely with Meta to fight such fraud.

Earlier in his speech, he had said: "For Singapore, the war against scams remains a top national priority. Singapore is a very attractive scam target.

"Dealing with a threat as insidious as scams will require a whole-of-society approach."

He said this involves four measures.

These include pre-emptively blocking scams, encouraging the reporting and detection of scams, taking firm action against scammers and recovering scam proceeds, and public education.

At the Summit on Sept 2, Meta's product management director Maxime Prades said they had protected nearly 500,000 public figures around the world with facial recognition technology.

Mr Prades said this had driven down the prevalence of celeb-bait ads, but did not mention if this included scams involving politicians.

He added that in 2024, Meta removed more than 157 million scam advertisements globally, with 90 per cent found and removed by the firm before users reported them.

Strained relationship

Meta has a strained relationship with the Singapore authorities for the way it handles scams.

In February 2024, then-Minister of State for Home Affairs Sun Xueling criticised Meta in Parliament for repeatedly refusing to have safeguards on its platforms to tackle the scam scourge.

Scam victims in Singapore had lost $651.8 million the previous year, with 46,563 cases reported.

Ms Sun had said Meta consistently pushed back against the Ministry of Home Affairs' (MHA) recommendations to implement safeguards to combat e-commerce scams on Facebook, such as user verification and offering a secured payment option.

Ms Sun, who is now Senior Minister of State for Transport and for National Development, had urged the company "to step up, to do right by your users."

Meta said it was dismayed by Ms Sun's comments and that it was reviewing MHA's suggestions seriously.

Reports about scam advertisements on Meta-run Facebook grew by 12 per cent from June to December 2024, during a period where MHA assessed the effectiveness of Facebook's measures to verify the identity of risky advertisers.

The growing numbers prompted Meta to require all its Facebook advertisers to verify their identities by uploading their government-issued ID by end-June.

Another Meta-run platform, Facebook Marketplace, saw some improvement when its number of e-commerce scams fell by around 55 per cent from June to November 2024.

However, Facebook Marketplace has been ranked the worst in Singapore's E-commerce Marketplace Transaction Safety Ratings (TSR) for four consecutive years, including the latest one released on Aug 30.

Keeping tabs on TikTok

Mr Goh also announced that the Police have listed TikTok as a designated online service from Sept 1.

This means the social media platform has to comply with the Code of Practice for Online Communication Services under Ocha by Feb 28, 2026.

The code requires designated online services to implement ways to counter scams and cybercrime, such as verification measures to root out fake accounts run by scammers.

If they fail to do so, they can be directed to take corrective action. Failure to comply with a rectification notice can result in fines of up to $1 million.

Other designated social media platforms Facebook, WhatsApp and Telegram are also under this obligation.

In announcing the move, Mr Goh said the number of scam cases on TikTok has increased by 240 per cent in 2024 compared to 2023.

Phishing scams with food-related advertisements on social media including TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, featuring heavily discounted food items, such as durians and crackers, is one example.

On a brighter note, Mr Goh highlighted the overall drop in scam cases and losses in the first half of 2025 compared with the same period last year.

Scam victims lost $456.4 million between January and June 2025, down from the $522.4 million lost during the same period in 2024.

He said: "It shows that with sufficient determination and effort, we can push back against the scammers."