MHA to consider mandating deployment of staff from online platforms to police's Anti-Scam Command

Source: The Straits Times
Author: Nadine Chua

SINGAPORE - The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) will consider making it mandatory for online platforms such as Meta to deploy their staff at the police's Anti-Scam Command (ASCom), said Minister for Home Affairs K. Shanmugam on May 7.

Having staff of such platforms deployed at ASCom has allowed the police to take down scam accounts or listings on their sites quicker.

Mr Shanmugam said this in a written parliamentary reply in response to Mr Derrick Goh's (Nee Soon GRC) question on how the ministry can better facilitate the learning of anti-scam best practices among e-commerce platforms.

The minister noted that online shopping platforms Carousell and Shopee had deployed their staff to ASCom since the first quarter of 2024.

"This has allowed the police to screen... scam accounts in real time, improve the turnaround time by platforms to take down these scam accounts or listings, and strengthen the working relationship between the police and the platforms," added Mr Shanmugam.

Mr Goh asked if there has been a shift in Meta's stance since calls were made for it to step up on its anti-scam measures.

In response, Mr Shanmugam said MHA has been speaking to Meta regularly on the requirements of the Online Criminal Harms Act, particularly regarding the upcoming Codes of Practice for designated online service providers.

MHA had earlier said that these Codes of Practice, which aim to strengthen partnership with online services to counter scams and malicious cyber activities, will come into force at a later stage.

Mr Shanmugam said: "Meta is aware of the timeline for the Codes to be introduced and the Government's expectations. We will not hesitate to take designated online service providers to task if they do not comply with the Codes' requirements."

In February, Minister of State for Home Affairs Sun Xueling called out Meta for repeatedly refusing to have safeguards on its platforms to tackle the scam scourge.

Ms Sun had said during the ministry's budget debate that Facebook Marketplace, which Meta runs, is the only platform among those rated in the ministry's anti-scam safety ratings that has not implemented the recommended safety features.

As part of the E-commerce Marketplace Transaction Safety Ratings, ratings are assigned to e-commerce platforms based on the extent to which they have implemented critical anti-scam features.