S'pore orders Meta to take measures against Facebook scams impersonating govt officials by Sep. 30

The police sent a directive to Meta on Sep. 24 to put in place measures to fight scams on Facebook that impersonate Singapore officials.

These scams include fake advertisements, accounts, profiles, and/or business pages that use videos or images of key government office holders.

To reduce them, Meta was instructed to introduce enhanced facial recognition measures in Singapore, and prioritise the review of end-user reports from Singapore.

It is the first such directive issued under the Online Criminal Harms Act (OCHA) since it came into effect in July 2023, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said.

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, was given until Sep. 30 to comply.

If it fails to do so "without reasonable excuse", it could be fined up to S$1 million.

If Meta continues not to comply after that, it could potentially face a further fine of up to S$100,000 for every day or part of a day during which the offence continues after conviction.

Rise in impersonation scams

Between June 2024 and June 2025, the police disrupted around 2,000 Facebook impersonation scams impersonating key government office holders, MHA said.

Such cases more than tripled from 589 in the first half of 2024, to 1,762 over the same period in 2025, according to the police's mid-year brief.

Facebook has been the top platform used by scammers to commit the offences.

"While Meta has taken steps to address the risk of impersonation scams globally, including in Singapore, MHA and SPF (Singapore Police Force) remain concerned by the prevalence of such scams in Singapore," MHA said.

Apart from government officials, MHA and the police will also work with Meta to support other influential public figures in Singapore who may be at risk of being impersonated by scammers.

MHA and the police are also considering imposing similar requirements on other online platforms.

Related stories

Top images from Wikicommons and MHA