Singapore targets scam surge with mandatory anti-spoofing steps for messaging apps

Singapore’s police have ordered Apple and Google to adopt new safeguards on iMessage and Google Messages to curb a sharp rise in government impersonation scams, according to a statement issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Tuesday.

Under the mandate, which was issued on Monday through the Online Criminal Harms Act, it has been required that the platforms prevent accounts and group chats from using names that could be “spoofed” to resemble official government identities such as “gov.sg” or specific agencies. It has also been directed that messages from such accounts be filtered, and that profile names of unknown senders be displayed less prominently or not at all compared with their phone numbers. These steps have been said to help users more easily identify suspicious or unknown contacts.

Apple and Google have indicated that compliance will be carried out by Sunday, MHA was cited as saying in a Channel News Asia report. The public has additionally been urged by authorities to regularly update their messaging apps to ensure that the latest anti-spoofing protections are active.

The new measures have been introduced as part of a broader effort to curb “spoofing” , a technique in which cybercriminals disguise themselves as trusted entities. The move follows significant increases in scams involving the impersonation of government officials.

According to police data, it was reported that 1,762 such cases occurred in the first half of 2025 nearly triple the 589 cases reported during the same period last year, representing a 199.2% rise. Losses amounting to about SGD126.5 million were recorded, making it the second-costliest scam category during the period. These scams were said to have accounted for 28% of all scam cases and 34% of total scam-related financial losses.

It has also been stated that similar orders had previously been issued to Meta, which was required to introduce features such as facial recognition to counter Facebook impersonation scams.