Scammers Are Increasingly Using Messaging And Social Media Apps To Attack

Scams and cybercrimes have continued their upward trajectory in Singapore, with scammers opting to reach their victims through messaging and social media platforms. 

Meta's trinity of platforms -- Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp -- are of particular concern, alongside Telegram, the latter of which is used in 45% of scam cases, according to the latest stats from Singapore Police Force (SPF). 

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The number of scam and cybercrime cases climbed from 18% to 28,751 from January to June this year, up from 24,367 cases during the same period in 2023. Scams grew 16.3% year-on-year to account for 92.5% of total cases, with victims losing SG$385.6 million ($294.65 million) in such cases, up 24.6% from last year. 

Across the board, victims lost an average of SG$14,503 in each instance of scam, up 7.1% from last year. 

Some 86% of reported cases were "self-effected" fund transfers, in which victims were manipulated into performing the transactions without scammers gaining direct control of user accounts. SPF explained that these were likely the result of social engineering and deception involving various scam methods. 

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The law enforcement agency added that most scammers contacted their victims through messaging, social media, and online shopping platforms. These accounted for the top three modes of contact, with phone calls and other websites rounding up the top five list. 

In particular, messaging apps were used as a mode of contact in 8,336 scam cases, compared to 6,555 during the same period last year. WhatsApp was the most popular, accounting for 50.2% of scams, SPF said. It also pointed to Telegram, which saw a 137.5% spike in scam cases to account for 45% of messaging platforms used to contact victims.

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Social media was used in 7,737 scam cases, up from 5,937 in the first half of 2023. Facebook accounted for 64.4% of the overall figure, followed by Instagram at 18.6%. Some 50.9% of those contacted via Facebook were victims of e-commerce scams.

While most scam victims were below the age of 50, accounting for 74.2% of the total figure, the average amount lost per victim was highest among those aged 65 and above, according to the SPF report. 

Furthermore, scams involving the impersonation of government officials clocked the highest average loss of SG$116,534 per case, followed by SG$40,080 per case for investment scams. SPF explained that scammers using these two methods typically turned to social engineering and fraud over time. 

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At least SG$13.3 million was also lost in phishing scams, which accounted for 3.4% of overall scam losses. Another SG$67.5 million was lost to scammers impersonating government officials, or 17.5% of total losses. There were 3,447 reported phishing cases involving emails, text messages, calls, and advertisements from scammers impersonating government officials, financial institutions, and other businesses. 

Some 580 scam cases involved the impersonation of government employees, up 58% from last year. These cases resulted in losses totaling SG$67.5 million, a 67.1% increase from SG$40.4 million in 2023. 

However, there were some positive outcomes, with malware-enabled scam cases dipping 86.2% in the first half of 2024, compared to 687 cases during the same period last year. The total amount lost in such cases also dropped 96.8% to SG$295,000, from a whopping SG$9.1 million the previous year.