Singapore steps up fight against cybercrime, scams

The Singapore Police Force (SPF) Cyber Command will be dedicated to combating online crimes, including scams and other forms of cybercrime.

Singapore (VNA) – Singapore will launch a new police Cyber Command in July, bringing together existing cybercrime and anti-scam capabilities from across the Singapore Police Force (SPF), including those from the current Anti-Scam Command.

The unit will be dedicated to combating online crimes, including scams and other forms of cybercrime.

Announcing this information on May 11, Singapore’s Minister of State for Home Affairs Goh Pei Ming said the Cyber Command will be a front-line unit that will start with about 200 officers.

This will eventually be doubled to more than 400 officers, he added.

Goh was speaking at the opening of the Anti-Scam Conference 2026, held at the Police Cantonment Complex from May 11 to 13.

The conference sees representatives from more than 20 countries, including France and the United Arab Emirates, meeting and sharing best practices to disrupt cross-border criminal networks.

In his opening speech, Goh said the police will be taking the fight against scams and cybercriminals further upstream, and disrupting threats before they reach Singapore.

To do this, he said the Cyber Command will proactively take down criminal infrastructure, such as fake websites and malicious phone lines used in phishing scams.

At present, the police are already using artificial intelligence to identify suspected scam sites, enabling them to quickly block two-thirds of such sites.

Goh said such tech tools will be further developed, with the goal of identifying and shutting down scam sites and channels faster than perpetrators can set them up.

A recent report by Interpol found that AI-enabled fraud can generate profits 4.5 times higher than traditional methods, which authorities described as a serious concern for Singapore.

In 2025, Singapore recorded more than 37,300 reported scam cases, with losses reaching 913.1 million SGD (about 720 million USD). In the first quarter of 2026 alone, over 7,800 cases were reported, causing economic losses exceeding 144.3 million SGD. Beyond financial damage, authorities warned that scams are also seriously eroding public trust in Singaporean society./.

VNA

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