SINGAPORE - While various online platforms have cooperated with the authorities to combat scams, Meta was called out for repeatedly refusing to have safeguards on its platforms to tackle the scourge.

At the debate on the Ministry of Home Affairs’ (MHA) budget on Feb 29, Minister of State for Home Affairs Sun Xueling said Facebook Marketplace, which Meta runs, is the only platform among those rated in the ministry’s anti-scam safety ratings that has not implemented the recommended safety features.

Ms Sun said: “Meta has consistently pushed back against MHA’s recommendations for them to put in place safeguards to combat e-commerce scams on Facebook, such as verifying users against government-issued ID and offering a secured payment option for Marketplace users.”

She said Meta products, namely Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, were among the top online platforms exploited by scammers.

These platforms accounted for almost half of the scam cases in 2023, amounting to around $280 million in losses.

According to annual scam figures released by the police earlier in February, the total number of scam cases here hit a record high in 2023, with 46,563 cases reported.

Victims in Singapore lost $651.8 million in 2023, a slight dip from the $660.7 million lost to scammers in 2022. More than $2.3 billion has been lost to scams here since 2019.

E-commerce scams were the second scam of concern in 2023, as the number of cases more than doubled, with 9,783 cases, up from around 4,700 in 2022.

Victims lost at least $13.9 million to e-commerce scams in 2023.

Despite Facebook contributing close to half of the e-commerce scam cases in 2023, Meta has not put in place the recommended safety features to protect its users from falling for scams, said Ms Sun.

She said that in 2023, Facebook Marketplace was ranked the lowest in MHA’s E-commerce Marketplace Transaction Safety Ratings for the second consecutive year.

The rating system was launched in 2022 to educate consumers on which e-commerce marketplaces have safety features in place to protect users from scams.

Ms Sun said: “I urge Meta to step up, to do right by your users.”

She was responding to questions from Mr Gan Thiam Poh (Ang Mo Kio GRC) on how the Government works with online platforms to better protect Singaporeans from scams.

She said other platforms, including Shopee and Carousell, have worked with MHA and the police to strengthen their user verification processes.

She said Shopee has been verifying seller identities against government records, resulting in a 71 per cent drop in e-commerce scams reported on the shopping platform between 2021 and 2023.

Since Jan 30, Carousell’s staff have been deployed at the police’s Anti-Scam Command (ASCom) office to help the authorities tackle scam incidents more quickly.

Carousell is the first e-commerce platform to be stationed at ASCom.

Previously, only staff from the six leading banks – DBS, OCBC, UOB, Standard Chartered, HSBC and CIMB – and the Government Technology Agency were deployed at ASCom.

Ms Sun said having Carousell at ASCom has shortened the turnaround time for online monikers involved in scams and suspicious advertisements to be taken down on Carousell from days to hours.

She added that the Government will criminalise the misuse of local SIM cards for carrying out scams and other criminal activities.

She said scammers have been using local SIM cards to make scam calls and send text messages.

Ms Sun said the ScamShield app will also be enhanced to better detect scam SMSes, and allow users to report scams more easily.

The app, which can be downloaded on Android and iOS devices, blocks calls from blacklisted numbers that have been verified as scam-related and identifies scam SMSes.

Ms Sun said the top scams in 2023 included job scams, e-commerce scams and fake friend call scams, noting that such scams rely more on social engineering than on technological sophistication.

She said: “As individuals, our ‘optimism bias’ leads us to mistakenly believe that we will not be deceived.

“We may also let our guard down, making us vulnerable to our inherent human desire to be loved, to make an extra buck, to seize an attractive-looking offer.”

Ms Sun added that to boost public education against scams, anti-scam resources will be consolidated into a one-stop portal in 2024.

The website will include information on the latest scam trends, what individuals can do if they think they have been scammed and preventive measures to take.

Ms Sun said scams are a big problem, not just in Singapore.

She said Australia reported a loss of more than A$3.1 billion (S$2.7 billion) to scams in 2022, an 80 per cent spike from 2021.

More than US$10 billion (S$13.4 billion) was lost to fraud in the United States in 2023, up from US$5.8 billion in 2021.

Ms Sun said: “We must press on in the war against scams.

“In this fight, fellow Singaporeans, residents and government agencies are on the same battlefront, defending ourselves against bad actors who are out to scam Singaporeans of hard-earned money.”