ISTANBUL

Meta, the parent company of US social media company Facebook, was ordered by Singapore to implement anti-scam measures Wednesday to prevent fraudsters from impersonating key government officials on its platform, warning of a fine of up to $1 million for noncompliance, according to the Straits Times

The measures will target advertisements, accounts, profiles and business pages on Facebook, which is the most common platform for the scams in Singapore.

Cases of government official impersonation scams nearly tripled in 2025, with 1,762 reported incidents, compared to 2024. Victims lost $126.5 million in the first half of 2025, an almost 90% increase from the $67.2 million recorded in the same period of 2024, according to police statistics released Aug. 30.

The order was announced by Minister of State for Home Affairs Goh Pei Ming during a speech at the Global Anti-Scam Summit Asia 2025.

The measure marks the first implementation of a directive issued to an online service provider in Singapore under the Online Criminal Harms Act (Ocha), which took effect last year.

The move follows the emergence of multiple accounts earlier this year that impersonated Prime Minister Lawrence Wong and former Defense Minister Ng Eng Hen.

Wong cautioned the public in March about fake Facebook ads using deepfakes or his images to promote cryptocurrency, get-rich-quick schemes or permanent resident application services.

A Meta spokeswoman said the company’s policies prohibit impersonating public figures or running ads that deceptively target users, and the content is removed when detected, adding that it has specialized systems to identify impersonating accounts and celebrity-focused scam ads.​​​​​​​