Meta has stepped up its crackdown on fraud and e-commerce scams in Singapore, taking action against more than 3.7 million accounts, pages and other entities this year in partnership with the Singapore Police Force (SPF).

Between January and June, information shared by the SPF led Meta to act against more than 113,000 accounts and pages linked to fraud and scams, including investment scams. Meta said the intelligence led to action against more than five times as many assets as were initially flagged by police.

In June, Meta and the SPF ran a targeted operation ahead of Singapore’s school holidays, focusing on misleading prices, fake promotions for well-known brands, exaggerated product claims and tactics designed to create urgency or scarcity.

The operation resulted in action against more than 33,600 entities, according to Meta.

“What we’ve built with the Singapore Police Force turns that assumption on its head – their information helps us identify threats we might not see on our own, and our ability to act at scale means those networks can be dismantled before they reach more people,” said Daryl Poon, director of law enforcement outreach, Apac. 

The companies have also targeted ‘shell pages’, which appear empty and legitimate but are created in advance by scammers for later use. Meta said it removed more than 3.6 million such pages in July based on information from Singapore police.

The crackdown comes as Singapore increases pressure on online platforms to tackle scams proactively. New rules introduced last month require designated social media and e-commerce services to implement measures to disrupt scams and malicious cyber activity.

• Further reading: How Meta escaped its biggest legal threat with its business intact.