• HOW TO SPOT THE REAL DEAL

• The NLB's S.U.R.E (Source. Understand. Research. Evaluate.) initiative was launched in 2013 as the primary education arm for the National Information Literacy Programme.

  SOURCE: Make sure the source of information is credible and reliable.

  UNDERSTAND: Know what you're reading and search for clarity.

  RESEARCH: Investigate thoroughly before making a conclusion; check with multiple sources

  EVALUATE: Look from different angles - there are at least two sides to a story

• SPOTTING BOGUS GOVERNMENT SITES

  With fake government websites for phishing scams or pure mischief on the rise, the Government has these suggestions to identify them:

  1. E-mails that use a public Internet account

  Take a look at the sender's e-mail address before clicking on any link sent to you via e-mail. Do not trust the e-mail if it was sent via a public account. Singapore government e-mail addresses will end with @[AGENCY NAME].gov.sg.

  2. Incorrect URL

  A tell-tale sign of a fake website is the usage of incorrect suffixes in the URL of the website. All Singapore government websites end with gov.sg. Many fake government websites will use domain names such as .org or .net.

  3. Site is not secure

  Legitimate websites use encryption to help ensure your payment information remains safe. Look for a lock symbol in the browser window. The address should also start with "https://" rather than "http://". Do not enter payment information on any site that isn't secure.

  4. Grammatical errors

  Watch out for poor English or grammatical errors as this could mean that the site is not genuine and was put together quickly by someone looking to make a quick profit.

  5. Low-resolution images

  Scammers usually put up fake sites quickly, resulting in poor-quality websites. If a ministry logo or text appears to have poor resolution, this could be a clue that the website should not be trusted.

In Singapore, the issue of fake news was thrown into the spotlight with the antics of the now-defunct sociopolitical site The Real Singapore (TRS).

The site, which had as many as 2.6 million visitors a month, thrived on fabricated articles, some of which attempted to sow discord between Singaporeans and foreigners.

A court of law earlier this year found six such stories amounted to sedition - Singapore's worst case to date. One of the offending articles falsely claimed that a Filipino family's complaints caused a scuffle between the police and participants at last year's Thaipusam procession.

The contributor of the original article posted on another website that the allegations made in the TRS piece were untrue. But this did not stop some from making derogatory statements about foreigners when they read the article.

Site founders Yang Kaiheng and his wife Ai Takagi were jailed for eight and 10 months, respectively.

FAKE NEWS, REAL APPEAL

Around the world, there are fake news websites dedicated to manufacturing hoaxes, propaganda and disinformation.

One motivation is simply money. Such sites deliberately seek to inflame social media, which in turn drives traffic to them, thus attracting advertisers and their dollars. The founders of TRS made at least $500,000 this way, the court heard.

The sheer scale of the false news churned out during the recent US presidential election astonished many - and it was often done for the cash returns.

A report by media outlet BuzzFeed said that more than 100 pro-Trump websites publishing sensational and often false content were being run from a single town in Macedonia, in eastern Europe. Some sites had seemingly believable names such as USConservativeToday.com, DonaldTrumpNews.co and WorldPoliticus.com.

A 17-year-old who ran one of the sites told BuzzFeed that faking news was an "easy way to make money".

Some Singaporeans encountered - and even shared - election fakery.

One popular hoax post purported to be of a young Mr Trump saying in a People magazine interview in 1998: "If I were to run, I would run as a Republican. They're the dumbest group of voters in the country."

In the nation of Georgia, student Beqa Latsabidze, 22, set up pseudo-US political news websites to make money from Google ads by luring people off Facebook pages to him.

Apart from financial gain, other reasons to pump out fake news include the desire to advance a political agenda, or to commit pure mischief.

In the US, it has sparked fears that intelligence agencies in Russia may have meddled in American politics and used fake news to influence the election.

But a combination of factors here makes it harder for Singaporeans to be suckered in by fake political news, argues Nanyang Technological University communications professor Ang Peng Hwa.

For starters, he says that individuals, whether pro- or anti-PAP, are more likely to come across alternative views.

"In the US, people are so touchy precisely because of the strong (political) divide (there).

"But in Singapore, people seem to talk quite freely," he says.

Another reason is that pragmatic Singaporeans are simply more concerned with bread-and-butter issues like housing or the Central Provident Fund - not so much about the candidates themselves.

Prof Ang says: "When it comes to misinformation about policies, you can be sure that the Government will clarify.

"And when it comes to wrong statements about individuals, there are defamation suits. Because of this, some politicians may take one or even two steps back."

WHAT LIES AHEAD?

The borderless nature of the Internet and the speed at which it facilitates dissemination of material make it harder for mainstream media to fact-check the deluge.

In March last year, several international news outlets, including CNN and Chinese broadcaster CCTV, prematurely announced the death of former prime minister Lee Kuan Yew after they were taken in by a Singapore teenager's hoax.

More recently, this newspaper was among several to be affected by the fake news phenomenon.

In a news report last month, it attributed US President-elect Trump's appointment of billionaire Wilbur Ross as Commerce Secretary to a tweet, allegedly from Mr Ross himself.

Although Mr Trump eventually announced the job offer, the tweet had turned out to be from a hoax account.

As to Mr Trump's actual election, Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg initially said it was "extremely unlikely hoaxes changed the outcome of this election".

However, he has since joined Google in pledging to cut off ad revenue to fake news creators.

In terms of the political implications here of fake news, the situation is quite different from the US in that the ruling People's Action Party won a strong mandate from voters in the last general election - it clinched 69.9 per cent of the vote.

In contrast, although Mr Trump won due to the American system of the electoral college, which is measured on state-by-state results, his actual vote share was 46.2 per cent against Mrs Clinton's 48 per cent.

As such, in Singapore there is less enthusiasm - or at least a smaller audience - for fake counter narratives.

While Singaporeans seem to be more discerning and less trigger-happy in sharing fake news compared to the early 2010s, MP Zaqy Mohamad thinks that such bogus stories still pose a threat to security and harmony here.

Says Mr Zaqy, who chairs the Government Parliamentary Committee on Communications and Information: "All it takes is one person and one message.

"One bomb threat could cause panic. One comment could create the impression that it's okay to bash foreigners.

"They add up, and then you may end up with a real situation where people think that such views are common and okay.

"If that's the case, what becomes of Singapore?"