While many Singaporeans might have fallen prey to online scams of late, it's hard to imagine Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong being one of them.

That was indeed the case, however, when he bought something online but it never arrived.

Amid heavy discussions about politics and the economy, PM Lee took the chance to jest about this particular mistake — one that any other Singaporean could have made.

Bought stuff from suspicious site

"I've been scammed before," PM Lee confessed with a sheepish smile.

He revealed that he'd made a purchase online he thought was genuine, but his order was never delivered to him.

When he checked the URL of the website he'd bought the item from, he realised it bore the Estonian domain ".en".

"It turns out that this country has different regulations from ours. Unless someone just pretended to be from there," he said, "Who knows?"

He expressed worry over the rising number of Singaporeans falling prey to online scams.

Citing recent statistics, he stated that Singaporeans lose S$2 million to such scams every day.

"These are people's hard-earned money, some of them retirement funds, which are lost overnight."

Even smart people fall prey

Being scammed doesn't mean you are dumb, according to PM Lee.

Because "even very smart people can be duped too".

Unaware of this fact, people can easily be offended when bank staff try to help them after they have been scammed.

Some people might snap at the staff, saying: "I know what I'm doing, do you think I have dementia? I don't have dementia."

To these people, PM Lee delivered some words of reality that may be hard to hear:

"You may not yet have dementia, but you've already been unknowingly scammed into losing your money."

Nevertheless, he has hope that the problem can be successfully managed, as more Singaporeans tend to report scams as opposed to other countries like China and Malaysia.

Not angry about his deepfakes

On the topic of online duplicity, PM Lee also talked about deepfakes. In particular, his own.

The number of PM Lee-related scams seemed to have desensitized him to it.

"I no longer have a reaction to it. It's very common and has already happened so many times," he laughs good-naturedly.

"I often have people come up and show me screenshot of deepfakes with my face, and they're very angry. But I tell them, 'Don't be angry, calm down.' We will act on it."

Although he's informed the public about such deepfakes via Facebook, PM Lee said he can't keep up with the constant flood of scams.

He jokes: "My Facebook can't be like your bank app, warning you about the existence of scams each time you visit it."

A "headache-inducing" problem

The way PM Lee sees it, the internet can be a vibrant place, but it also brings with it a host of problems that give one a "headache".

Part of the government's headache comes from the fact that the nature of online scams are "ever-evolving". With scammers constantly thinking of new methods to ensnare others, there isn't always a way to stop them.

Deepfakes, in particular, are a formidable technology.

PM Lee grew increasingly animated as he explained that while people might be confident in their ability to distinguish what's real and what isn't, when it comes down to actually doing so, it's harder than one might think.

Not everything is the truth

Reiterating that it's a "nerve-wrecking" issue, PM Lee said we must first teach children how to look at news with a critical eye, to question its origin instead of blindly trusting its contents.

Otherwise, this will be how fake news spreads, he adds — by people forwarding sensationalistic news without fact-checking.

So if you see a news site claiming that "Mr Lee Hsien Loong is promoting bitcoin", it's best you double check, he said.

"Because unless something has happened to me, it's the internet playing tricks on you."

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Top images via PM Lee's Instagram