Description

Scams and cybercrime incidents in Singapore surged by 49.6% in the year 2023, totaling 50,376 cases in 2023, up from 33,669 cases in the previous year. These scams constituted 92.4% of all reported cases, resulting in victims losing SG$651.8 million (USD$483.62 million), a slight decrease from SG$660.7 million in 2022. The Singapore Police Force (SPF) revealed that victims reported 1,899 malware-enabled scam cases, with losses exceeding SG$34.1 million and an average loss of SG$17,960 per victim. Despite an overall decrease in average losses per case across all scams by 32.8% to SG$13,999, SPF highlighted concerns regarding scams exploiting social engineering tactics, particularly on social media and messaging platforms like Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Telegram. Efforts to combat these scams have been bolstered by collaborative initiatives involving various government agencies such as the Cyber Security Agency and the Monetary Authority of Singapore, alongside private sector organizations. However, SPF emphasized the persistent high losses incurred due to scams leveraging social engineering and deception to manipulate victims into transferring funds to scammers. Social media platforms, particularly those owned by Meta, were identified as prime channels for scammers to target victims, with Facebook being the most frequently used platform (71.7%), followed by Instagram (18.5%) and TikTok (4.1%). Among scams initiated through Facebook, e-commerce scams accounted for 41.5%, followed by malware-enabled scams (15.8%) and job scams (12%). Top scam types in 2023 included job scams, e-commerce scams, fake friend call scams, phishing scams, and investment scams, collectively representing 78.4% of reported cases. Notably, government official impersonation scams incurred the highest average losses per case at SG$103,600, followed by investment scams at SG$50,700. Despite a decrease in phishing scams by 16.3%, the average loss per case rose to SG$2,394, indicating a growing sophistication in scam tactics involving email, calls, and advertisements.