SINGAPORE – Meta was “dismayed” by Minister of State for Home Affairs Sun Xueling calling it out for not doing enough to protect users from e-commerce scams on Facebook, and said it is reviewing the ministry’s suggestions seriously.
The tech giant, which runs Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, said it has had years of consistent and close collaboration with the police to tackle scams.
“We are dismayed by the statements made during the Ministry of Home Affairs’ (MHA) budget debate yesterday,” a Meta spokesman said on March 1 in response to queries from The Straits Times.
“We believe in constructive dialogue and have been in close consultations with MHA and are reviewing their suggestions seriously.”
Ms Sun said on Feb 29 that Facebook Marketplace is the only platform among those rated in the ministry’s anti-scam safety ratings that has not implemented the recommended safety features, despite Facebook contributing close to half of the e-commerce scam cases in 2023.
The Meta spokesman said that it has strict policies that prohibit malicious activity, and that these policies are enforced through its review system.
“However, scams are a complex, industry-wide threat, and we recognise that no single solution or company can tackle them alone. We are committed to continue working closely with government partners on consumer education campaigns and will continue to evolve our products and tools to help people better protect themselves against scams.”
Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram were among the top online platforms exploited by scammers, and accounted for almost half of the scam cases in 2023 and around $280 million in losses, added Ms Sun, urging the company to “step up, to do right by your users”.
She said that for the second consecutive year in 2023, Facebook Marketplace was ranked the lowest in MHA’s E-commerce Marketplace Transaction Safety Ratings, which was set up to educate consumers on which e-commerce marketplaces have safety features in place to protect users from scams.
Yet, Meta has consistently pushed back against MHA’s recommendations to put in place safeguards to combat e-commerce scams on Facebook, such as verifying users against government-issued ID and offering a secure payment option for Marketplace users, Ms Sun said.
In response, Meta pointed ST to its webpage that lists its terms and policies, which state that products sold on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp must comply with its commerce policies, and that “buyers and sellers are responsible for complying with all applicable laws and regulations”.
The spokesman also directed ST to the scam prevention page on its site, which stated that action was taken against 1.3 billion fake accounts in the final quarter of 2022. This was down from the 1.5 billion accounts dealt with in the third quarter of 2022.
On its scam prevention page, Meta said: “We know the impact that scams can have on people around the world as scammers target them across the Internet. To help protect our users, we invest in our products and support systems to keep the scammers out.”
Scam victims in Singapore lost $651.8 million in 2023 – bringing the tally to more than $2.3 billion lost to scams since 2019. The total number of scam cases here hit a record high in 2023, with 46,563 cases reported.
E-commerce scams were the second scam of concern, behind job scams, in 2023, as the number of cases more than doubled, with 9,783 cases with at least $13.9 million lost, up from around 4,700 in 2022.
