Meta faces $775K penalty as Singapore cracks down on Facebook scams

The Ministry of State for Home Affairs has issued an ultimatum to Meta asking it to employ better anti-scam safeguards on its platform, Facebook, or face a penalty of up to 1 million Singapore dollars ($775,698).

Goh Pei Ming, Malaysia’s Minister of State for Home Affairs, claimed that Facebook was the main tool used by con artists during Wednesday’s Global Anti-Scam Asia 2025 summit. He issued the directive under the city-state’s new Online Criminal Harms Act, which came into effect in February last year.

“We are issuing the order to Meta because Facebook is the top platform used by scammers for such impersonation scams. The police have assessed that more decisive action is required to curb these scams,” Goh told attendees and members of the Global Anti-Scam Alliance (GASA).

Singapore police: A third of scams came from Facebook

According to Singapore’s government statistics collected from police investigations, impersonation scams involving officials nearly tripled in the first half of 2025 to 1,762 cases, compared with 589 in the same period a year earlier. 

Victims counted an 88% spike in losses from the fraudulent activities, jumping to S$126.5 million from S$67.2 million recorded in the first half of 2024. Home Affairs found that more than one-third of all e-commerce scams reported last year were perpetrated on Facebook. 

“For some victims, this could be their life savings, and fundamentally cripple their retirement plans,” Goh reckoned.

Singapore Home Affairs has ranked Facebook Marketplace the weakest among six online marketplaces in terms of anti-scam safeguards. A Meta spokesperson responded to the allegations, claiming the company has security measures to detect and remove impersonating accounts. 

The company reiterated it had review teams working on spotting scams and protecting users through tips and tools to report suspicious activity.

The company also said that Facebook Marketplace has verification requirements for certain sellers in Singapore, alongside in-product safety alerts. These updates came after authorities bashed the social media platform for “lacking adequate consumer protection.”

Social engineering scams flock to Facebook

According to a Wall Street Journal investigation in early May, regulators, banks, and internal company records reviews place Meta’s apps among the top contributors to the global internet fraud economy.

Nearly 50% of all scams reported through Zelle at JPMorgan Chase between mid-2023 and mid-2024 came under the Meta umbrella, a person familiar with the service told WSJ. Very similar numbers were also cited by other US banks like Wells Fargo.

British and Australian authorities have also found comparable patterns of fraud tied to Meta services. Internally, a 2022 Meta analysis found that 70% of newly active advertisers on its platform were linked to scams, illicit goods or low-quality products.

Company documents cited in the Journal revealed that advertisers could accumulate between eight and 32 automated “strikes” for financial fraud before facing a ban. When the issues were escalated internally, sources claim accounts received between four and 16 chances before being taken down. 

Meta has argued before in US courts it “bears no legal duty” to stop scams on its platforms. The social media giant filed a motion to dismiss a crypto fraud negligence lawsuit in 2024, propounding that “underenforcement” of its own policies “cannot give rise to liability.”

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