SINGAPORE (Bernama) -- The Singapore Police Force (SPF) has introduced new and enhanced codes of practice (COPs) under the Online Criminal Harms Act (OCHA) to strengthen safeguards against evolving scam threats.
In a statement on Tuesday, SPF said all the designated platforms will be required to implement the appropriate systems and measures to comply with the new COPs by Jan 31, 2027.
The COPs require online messaging and conferencing services, social media platforms and e-commerce services to proactively disrupt scams and malicious cyber activities targeting people in Singapore.
Under the social media code, SPF said platform providers such as Facebook, Instagram and TikTok will be required to take stronger measures, including preventing suspicious advertisements from being published and promptly removing those suspected of scams.
"The platforms will also have to verify advertisers’ identities by conducting checks against government-issued records and disallow the publication of advertisements offering financial services unless the advertisers are licensed," it said.
Meanwhile, under the messaging codes, platform providers will be required to implement measures to make it more difficult for unknown contacts to engage users and alert them to potential scam risks from such contacts.
The code will be introduced and applied to seven designated online messaging and conferencing services that pose the highest risk of scams to users in Singapore, including WhatsApp, Telegram, WeChat, Apple iMessage, Apple FaceTime, Google Messages and Google Meet, SPF said.
The enhanced COP for e-commerce services, which is also applicable to Carousell, Facebook Marketplace and Facebook Business Pages, builds upon existing requirements for seller verification and payment protection.
"Designated e-commerce platforms will be required to introduce stronger consent measures before permitting logins from new or unrecognised devices.
"The enhanced e-commerce code also adopts the safeguards introduced in the social media code to protect end-users against the exploitation of online advertisements by scam actors," SPF added.
-- BERNAMA
