Scams and cybercrimes have been on the rise in Singapore, with scammers increasingly using messaging and social media platforms to target victims.
According to the latest statistics from the Singapore Police Force (SPF), Meta’s platforms — Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp — are among the most concerning, with Telegram being used in 45% of scam cases.
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The number of scam and cybercrime cases has increased from 18% to 28,751 from January to June this year, compared to 24,367 cases during the same period in 2023. Scams have grown by 16.3% year-on-year, accounting for 92.5% of total cases, with victims losing SG$385.6 million ($294.65 million) to these scams, a 24.6% increase from last year.
On average, victims lost SG$14,503 in each scam, up 7.1% from the previous year. Most reported cases involved “self-effected” fund transfers, where victims were manipulated into making transactions without scammers having direct access to their accounts. SPF attributed this to social engineering and deceptive tactics used by scammers.
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The majority of scammers contacted their victims through messaging, social media, and online shopping platforms. Messaging apps were the most common mode of contact, with WhatsApp being the top choice, accounting for 50.2% of scams. Telegram saw a 137.5% increase in scam cases, making up 45% of messaging platforms used to reach victims.
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Social media platforms were used in 7,737 scam cases, with Facebook being the most popular choice at 64.4%, followed by Instagram at 18.6%. E-commerce scams made up 50.9% of scams on Facebook.
While most victims were under 50 years old (74.2% of total victims), those aged 65 and above had the highest average loss per victim. Scams involving impersonation of government officials had the highest average loss per case, followed by investment scams. These scams often involved social engineering and fraud tactics.
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Phishing scams accounted for SG$13.3 million in losses, while scams impersonating government officials resulted in SG$67.5 million in losses. There were 3,447 reported phishing cases involving emails, text messages, calls, and ads from scammers posing as government officials, financial institutions, and businesses.
580 cases involved impersonation of government employees
Malware-enabled scam cases decreased by 86.2% in the first half of 2024 compared to the previous year, with total losses also dropping significantly. This indicates progress in tackling cybercrimes and scams in Singapore.