Singapore police to launch dedicated Cyber Command in July to combat online crimes, scams

SINGAPORE - A new police Cyber Command will be established 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 on May 11, 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.

Mr 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, Mr 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.

Mr 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.

He said: “And this is the key: We must be able to detect and take them down faster and cheaper than they can accept. This is the way to break the cycle.”

But scammers and cybercriminals are also using AI.

A recent Interpol report found that fraud enabled by AI can be up to 4.5 times more profitable than traditional methods.

This is a serious concern for Singapore, which must stay proactive to keep ahead of such threats, said Mr Goh.

It is estimated that US$442 billion (S$561 billion) was lost to scams globally in 2025.

The scourge has plagued Singapore, with more than 37,300 cases of scams reported and some $913.1 million lost here in 2025.

In the first quarter of 2026, there were more than 7,800 cases reported, with victims losing more than $144.3 million.

Mr Goh said scams erode trust in society, and that he has met seniors who have isolated themselves out of fear.

“I’ve met seniors who are so fearful they become ‘digital refusers’, precipitating their dissociation from society,” he said.

“Unfortunately, I’ve also met Singaporeans whose retirements and families have been ruined by scams.”

He said Singapore has responded to this by introducing new laws, building strong international partnerships and developing strong operational capabilities such as the police’s Anti-Scam Centre.

Since its formation in 2019, the centre has recovered more than $730 million in scam proceeds.

Mr Goh said the centre will be embedded under the new Cyber Command and will have expanded teams that will use blockchain intelligence to trace and recover cryptocurrencies.

Assistant Superintendent of Police Lee Hua Sheng from the Anti-Scam Command said cryptocurrency scams present a different set of challenges from traditional scams.

“Unlike conventional bank transfers, crypto transactions are fast, borderless and irreversible. Once the funds are moved, freezing them becomes extremely difficult,” he said.

“Scammers exploit this by rapidly moving funds across multiple wallets and jurisdictions within seconds, deliberately obfuscating the trail.”

Dealing with the cross-border nature of cybercrime also requires cooperation between the local and international authorities.

Hence, another key role of the Cyber Command will be to strengthen international operations by partnering law enforcement agencies worldwide.

Mr Goh said Project FRONTIER+, which was established in 2024, is a good example of this.

The initiative brings together the anti-scam units of more than a dozen jurisdictions, including Hong Kong, Malaysia and Thailand, to take down syndicates and recover scam-related funds.

In 2025, this partnership led to more than $28 million recovered and more than 2,100 people linked to scams arrested.

Mr Goh said the authorities will double down on international cooperation efforts and expand local community engagement and outreach to empower more citizens to join in the fight against online criminal threats.

He said the new unit will be key in this fight, which is far from over.

He said: “The Cyber Command will be the tip of the spear in SPF’s response to cyberthreats, and be at the forefront of protecting Singaporeans from the threat of cybercrime and scams.”