Singapore’s Scam Paradox: Rising Losses and Rising Trust?

As more of the world goes online, scams and cybercrime have followed suit, rising in prevalence globally, as well as in Singapore. According to the 2024 Global State of Scams Report by GASA and Feedzai, within a one-year period from 2023 to 2024 alone, scammers siphoned off an estimated S$1.4 trillion to scams, with Singapore losing the 6th highest amount of any nation, per capita.

This article investigates this issue — these concerning numbers prompted a closer look at how Singaporeans perceive the threat of scams, their confidence in government efforts, and what more can be done to address this pressing issue.

Why This Matters So Much

According to our Good Governance Scorecard, the satisfaction rate among Singaporeans on the government’s performance on cybersecurity and scams was only 54% in Q1 2024, with it rising every single quarter since then to 72% in Q1 2025, despite the nation losing one of the highest amounts per capita to scams - the amount lost to scams rose from S$551 million in 2023 to S$930 million in 2024 - according to the SPF Scams and Cybercrime Brief 2024. This dichotomy becomes more significant when considering that cybersecurity and scams is, according to our data, is one of the top 5 most important issues to Singaporeans, behind Cost Of Living, Jobs and Unemployment, Salaries and Wages, and Housing Affordability, reinforcing the need to explore the issue further and uncover what has driven the significant increase in public satisfaction.

Understanding the Rise in Public Satisfaction

One of the reasons behind this significant increase in public satisfaction could be the series of new legislative and enforcement efforts by the government in the past year to tackle scams:

1. The landmark 2024 Protection from Scams Bill gave authorities the power to issue restriction orders, effectively freezing the funds in victims’ bank accounts, in order to curb the number of self-initiated transfers to scammers, which accounted for 82% of total scam cases, highlighting the government’s willingness to take a more direct, interventionist approach, potentially signalling their commitment to tackling the issue to the public.

2. The addition of the ‘Check for Scams’ feature in August 2024 enhanced the government’s ScamShield app, allowing users to verify suspicious messages or links in real time. This rollout was supported by a public awareness campaign aimed at encouraging adoption and building digital vigilance.

3. The introduction of new offences for SIM card abuse, targeting negligent usage, middlemen that facilitate SIM card transfers and retailers that facilitate fraudulent SIM card registration.

4. The planned establishment of the Online Safety Commission in 2026, to support victims of online harms by increasing enforcement against and assisting with the identification of perpetrators, for further legal action. This could be indicative to the public of a tougher governmental stance — going to greater lengths to identify and prosecute perpetrators.

However, not only could the visibility of this multi-pronged approach have driven the rise in public confidence in the government’s handling of scams, but the potential resultant effects of it may have played a part as well. According to the SPF, from 2023 to 2024:

1. The median amount lost per scam case fell by 13%.

2. The year-on-year growth rate in the number of scam cases from 2023 to 2024 was just one-fifth of the growth rate from 2022 to 2023, and half the growth rate from 2021 to 2022.

3. The total amount recovered as a proportion of scam losses grew by 500% compared to 2023, aside from 4 anomalously large cases in 2024 amounting to S$238 million in losses, highlighting better loss recovery capabilities.

4. There was a sharp increase in the amount of scam assets disrupted by the police, due to police collaborations with social media and telecommunication companies — 2024 saw a 530% increase in disrupted mobile lines, 720% increase in disrupted online advertisements and a 79% increase in disrupted websites, all of which point to more extensive, capable enforcement

Overall, we can deduce that these positive results may have fueled the rise in Singaporeans’ approval of how the government has handled scams and cybercrime in the past year.

Maintaining Momentum and Sustaining Public Confidence

The consistent increase in public approval on how the government has handled scams and cybercrime, despite the scale of the issue begs the question: What can be done to uphold this trend of increasing public satisfaction with the government’s performance on this issue?

So far, we can conclude that the recent wave of policies and enforcement efforts could have played a significant part in contributing to this trend, due to their favorable optics and of course, positive results — this supports the notion that continued impactful, visible efforts to tackle scams are needed to support this growth in public support in the future.

Additionally, the government can continue directing its efforts toward specific contact channels and scam typologies that account for a significant share of scam cases. Among the most commonly exploited outreach methods by scammers are messaging platforms, social media, phone calls, and online shopping platforms. Currently, the police Anti-Scam Command (ASCom) collaborates with a large network of institutions and facilitates the co-location of their staff within ASCom itself to enable more effective and timely interventions. These collaborative arrangements were recently expanded to include staff from online shopping platforms such as Carousell and Shopee, in response to the growing number of scam incidents originating from them.

Furthermore, breaking down scam-related financial losses by scam type reveals that investment scams accounted for the largest share, comprising nearly one-third of total losses. Notably, cryptocurrency scams alone were responsible for 1/4th of the total amount lost — likely due to the inherent challenges in monitoring and tracing crypto-based transactions. This underscores the potential need for more robust and comprehensive crypto regulatory frameworks to supplement existing measures to maintain public confidence in the government’s approach of dealing with these scams, particularly in light of the public’s already deep-seated distrust of cryptocurrencies, as discussed in our previous article.

 Overall, to maintain this positive trend in public approval, continued focus on high-risk contact channels and the development of stronger regulatory oversight, particularly in areas like investment and cryptocurrency — will be essential to sustaining public trust and confidence in the future. As it stands, the total amount lost to scams as well as the number of annual scam cases, continues to grow, and Singapore still loses one of the highest amounts, per capita to scams, highlighting that there is still a lot of room for progress. While existing and recently implemented measures like the Protection From Scams bill may have played a part in combating scams, it is not very clear what the long term effects of them may be — only time will tell.

Conclusion

As scams evolve in scale and sophistication, Singapore’s enforcement and response must continue to adapt in tandem. While public approval of the government’s handling of this issue has risen significantly in the last year, sustaining this hinges not only on the visibility of enforcement, but on real, long-term impact. While recent legislative and operational efforts show early promise, the rising volume of scams is a reminder that this battle is far from over. Continued vigilance, targeted interventions, and regulatory advancements — especially around riskier contact channels and scam types will be key to safeguarding both the public and its confidence in the government, in years to come.