Singaporean scam victims lost $294.79 million in H1

The scam situation in Singapore has worsened, with the number of cases rising 16.3% to 26,587, and victims losing a record high of over SGD385.6 million ($294.79 million) in the first six months of this year.

According to the police’s mid-year scam and cyber-crime statistics released on August 22, if the trend continues, scam losses could exceed SGD770 million by the end of 2024, setting a new record compared to the annual high of SGD660.7 million in 2022.

In 86% of the cases, the scammers did not gain control of the victims’ accounts but had manipulated them into transferring money to the criminals.

Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp, scammers were the consistently over-represented among the platforms used by scammers in the period. In morethan 7,700 cases in where scammers contacted victims via social media, Facebook was used in 64.4% of them, and Instagram 18.6%. Meanwhile, in more than 8,300 cases where scammers reached victims via messaging platforms, Whatsapp was used in 50.2% of them, and Telegram 45%.

At a media briefing, Singapore's Minister of State for Home Affairs Sun Xueling said the figures are worrying, adding investment and government official impersonation scams were of particular concern.

During January-June, the police worked with banks, and prevented over SGD 204 million of potential losses to scams. The police’s Anti-Scam Commanddeleted 2,700 scam-tainted accounts, and took down suspicious advertisements in the period.

A pilot programme to verify the identity of risky sellers on Facebook Marketplace and risky advertisers on Facebook began in June. The programme isbelieved to be the first globally.