Facebook advertisers must verify their identities by end-June following rise of scam ads
Source: Straits Times
Article Date: 11 Mar 2025
Author: Osmond Chia
MHA said Facebook was unable to curb the frequency of scam advertisements in the second half of 2024.
By the end of June, all Facebook advertisers will be required to verify their identities by uploading their government-issued ID.
The mandatory verification, initiated by Facebook owner Meta, comes on the heels of a 12 per cent increase in reports about scam advertisements on Facebook recorded during a pilot test from June to December 2024.
During that period, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had allowed Facebook to apply the verification requirement only on selected advertisers. If scams remained rampant, MHA would tighten its requirements.
Under a new Code of Practice for E-Commerce Services, which took effect in June 2024, designated platforms such as Facebook and Carousell need to roll out measures to protect Singapore users from scams. Between June and December 2024, the platforms needed to verify only the identities of sellers considered “risky”.
On March 10, MHA said Facebook was unable to curb the frequency of scam advertisements in the second half of 2024, referring to advertisements that appear in posts across the platform.
The ministry noted that Meta’s verification requirements were restricted to paid advertisements, while police statistics on scam advertisements comprise both paid and unpaid posts.
MHA said: “Meta intends to verify the identities of all advertisers on Facebook by end-June 2025. We welcome this and will monitor the situation.”
Failure to comply with the Code is a criminal offence under the Online Criminal Harms Act. Guilty parties may be fined up to $1 million under the Act, which came into effect in February 2024.
The pilot also involved Carousell and Facebook’s Marketplace e-commerce service and Pages services, giving time for both platforms to trial the use of verification measures on selected sellers and advertisers. Both platforms ranked at the bottom of a yearly e-commerce safety ranking by MHA published in April 2024.
On March 10, MHA said it was satisfied with the effectiveness of anti-scam measures to screen selected users on Meta’s and Carousell’s online marketplaces and has decided not to require compulsory verification measures for all sellers.
E-commerce scams typically involve the sale of products like concert tickets offered at attractive prices but are not delivered to the buyer. Any individual with a Carousell or Facebook account is able to list items for sale on the platforms’ marketplaces.
The number of e-commerce scams on Facebook Marketplace fell by around 55 per cent from June to December 2024 during the assessment, which MHA said is a “significant improvement”.
“That said, we will continue to monitor the e-commerce scams situation on Marketplace, and may require Meta to verify the identities of more sellers should the situation worsen,” said MHA.
The ministry is also working with Meta to introduce more stringent verification measures for Facebook Pages in 2025, starting with a handful of selected Pages, which are profiles used by public figures or brands to connect with their audiences.
Scammers would create disingenuous Facebook Pages promoting the sale of goods and services and use them to reach out and trick victims, said MHA, adding that Meta could be required to implement stronger measures, like verification requirements for all Pages if the scam numbers do not fall.
Meta and Carousell will continue to be given more time to implement payment protection measures as required by the Code of Practice, such as to release payments only after goods and services are verified to have been delivered. MHA said this is to give the platforms more time to focus on verification and other anti-scam measures for now.
Meta’s director of public policy in South-east Asia Rafael Frankel said similar user verification measures may be rolled out in other markets, depending on the effectiveness of the measures in the pilot in Singapore. He declined to reveal how Facebook identifies risky accounts in case scammers use the information to evade detection.
Carousell was also let off being required to verify all its sellers, owing to an 11 per cent drop in e-commerce scams on the platform during MHA’s assessment.
“While this was not a significant decrease, it was a decreasing trend, and Carousell has demonstrated willingness and proactiveness to work with us on various anti-scam measures,” said MHA.
Carousell will be given another six months to curb the frequency of e-commerce scams reported, or be required to verify the identities of all its sellers by October, said MHA.
A Carousell spokesman said it does not plan to require all sellers to verify their identities as it would create a high barrier for entry to its services, opting instead to target sellers involved in high-risk scenarios, which are determined based on known scam trends, community reports and user behaviour.
A breakdown of e-commerce scams reported by online platforms compiled by MHA shows that Facebook accounted for 37.4 per cent (or 4,368 cases) of e-commerce scams in 2024. Carousell came in second with 1,987 reported scams, accounting for 17 per cent of all e-commerce cases.
E-commerce scams were the most common type of scam in 2024, with 11,665 reported cases and victims losing at least $17.5 million in total. This is an increase from the 9,783 e-commerce scam cases reported in 2023, involving $13.9 million lost in total.
Source: The Straits Times © SPH Media Limited. Permission required for reproduction.
1059