As online scams continue to outpace that of traditional fraud, organisations at the front lines have the responsibility and opportunity to do what is necessary to safeguard consumers.
As it is, more than US$1 trillion worldwide are lost to scams each year, according to Global Anti-Scam Alliance (GASA), a non-profit organisation which aims to safeguard consumers against scams.
In Southeast Asia alone, an estimated US$23.6 billion were lost to scammers in the past year, a study by GASA found. The survey polled 6,000 respondents across six markets in the region, including Singapore, Indonesia, and the Philippines.
About 63% of respondents report having experienced some form of scam in the past 12 months, with 22% proceeding to lose money to scammers, said Rajesh Sandhu, advisor at GASA Southeast Asia.
The highest average amount lost per person was highest in Singapore at US$2,132, Sandhu said at the Global Anti-Scam Summit Asia 2025 in Singapore, which was hosted by GASA.
Across Southeast Asia, each victim on average lost US$660, with scams most prevalent in Vietnam and Malaysia, according to the study.
In addition, 48% sent funds to scammers via wire or bank transfers and 36% did so via digital or e-wallets.
Two thirds of scams in the region occurred within a day the victim was first contacted by the scammer, indicating the speed at which such incidents moved.
Some 94% of users say they take at least one step to verify the legitimacy of suspicious contacts, including 32% who “follow the rule [that] if it seems too good to be true, it probably is”.
Another 30% check the presence of a phone number, while 30% will search for reviews on another websites.
Despite 78% expressing confidence they are able to recognise scams, just under two thirds admit to having experienced a scam.
Scam victims are outmatched amidst AI use
“Scams have grown into a multi-billion-dollar crisis, now accelerating at a pace we've never seen before, driven in large part by the rise of GenAI (generative artificial intelligence),” GASA said, noting that many still fall victim because scams today are sophisticated and realistic.
It added that scammers are using AI to craft highly convincing messages, impersonate trusted sources, and launch attacks with unprecedented speed and scale.
“Victims aren’t careless. They’re simply outmatched,” Sandhu said.
In the push for digital transformation, consumers have been told to trust digital transactions and the businesses with which they transact on these platforms.
Sandhu questioned if it was then fair to ask consumers to bear the full cost when that digital trust is affected.
He also posed if it was fair to treat scams as a “private mistake” when the battle front is global, as he pointed to cross-border scam activities.
And just as the battle field has shifted, so too must the line of defence and response, he said.
It is no longer adequate to simply ask consumers to be careful, he added.
“Experience is no longer enough to stay safe,” GASA cautioned. “This is where real-time, data-driven identification becomes essential -- recognising scam threats the moment they appear, whether through a phone call, a message on a platform, or during a financial transaction.”
“Those at the front lines are telecom operators, platform providers, and banks -- those with both the greatest responsibility and the clearest opportunity to take action and protect users,” it said.
In particular, the study findings revealed that consumers believe government should assume more responsibility for protecting citizens against scams, Sandhu said.
Some 37% of Southeast Asian respondents feel it is the responsibility of public service organisations to keep people safe from scammers, including 16% who pointed to the government as most responsible.
Another 29% believe businesses should take responsibility, while another third of respondents feel they themselves should assume responsibility.
“Scams are no longer isolated incidents; they are part of a sophisticated crime ecosystem,” GASA said. “Stopping them requires the same level of coordination and scale, [where] governments, banks, telecom providers, digital platforms, and solution providers all have a role to play.”
This means plugging gaps that exist between different bodies and sectors, said Wisit Wisitsora-at, Permanent Secretary for Thailand’s Ministry of Digital Economy and Society.
Agencies and organisations operate on their own policies and processes, but acting on scams will require integration and coordination between different sectors, Wisit said during a panel discussion at the summit.
Multi-disciplinary, involving different agencies and industry stakeholders, as well multinational efforts are crucial, said Loh Yuh Yiing, director of policy development and security at Singapore’s Ministry of Home Affairs.
With online scams outpacing physical scam incidents, the way to tackle scams must also be borderless, Loh said during the panel discussion.
Scammers should be made aware that they cannot commit scams against citizens in another country and get away with it, she said.
Delegates at the summit noted that scam syndicates typically are operated by physical centres located in certain countries, where they drive scam activities targeting victims across the region and globe. This complicates response and enforcement actions, as multilateral coordination and efforts are necessary to bring down such criminal activities.
Legal frameworks are essential to facilitate cross-border collaboration to bring down scam groups, Loh said.
Putting the onus on companies to disrupt scams
Over the past year, Singapore’s law enforcement also has seen scams move from traditional modes of contact, such as SMS, to online platforms.
In the first half of this year, scammers tapped such platforms to reach out to victims in 82% of scam cases, said Goh Pei Ming, Singapore’s Minister of State, Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of Social and Family Development.
Last year alone, one in 120 in the country were scammed, Goh said, during his speech at the summit.
Urging the need to address the issue, he noted that scams undermine trust in the digital economy, which can only grow if businesses and consumers are able to transact online with confidence.
Dealing with scams requires “a whole-of-society approach” and encompasses various efforts, he said.
Topmost, scams must be pre-emptively prevented and blocked.
Goh noted that Singapore has turned to legislative measures to work with online platforms in thwarting scams, which have resulted in the local police disrupting more than 21,000 online monikers and advertisements in the first half of this year.
He added that a directive will be issued to Meta, requiring the US online platform to implement measures to address scam ads, accounts, profiles, and business profile pages that impersonate key government officials on Facebook.
The social media platform is most often used to carry out scams that impersonate government officials, he noted.
The directive will mark Singapore's first use of such mechanisms, he said. Meta can face fines of up to SG$1 million if it fails to comply.
Such impersonation cases climbed 200% in the first half of 2025, year on year, leading to a 90% increase in losses to SG$126 million. Some SG$72,000 on average was lost in each of such scam incident.
Goh said the Singapore government continues to assess the effectiveness of requirements imposed on online platforms in combating scams. These include identifying platforms, such as TikTok, as an online service so they must comply with the country's Services Code of Practice, including adopting the necessary processes and measures to disrupt scams, he noted.
“The message from the government is clear: if you enable scams, even indirectly, you will be taken to task, and you will face the full force of the law,” he said.
Noting that scammers will seek out new ways and loopholes to evade anti-scam measures, he added that the community and ecosystem also needs to evolve to more effectively combat scams.
Goh added that commercial entities, such as financial institutions and telcos, have a critical role in stopping scammers from accessing tools they need to launch their attacks.
The Singapore minister underscored the need to exchange intel and data, and share technology to rid fraudsters from digital platforms.
He pointed to the Stop Scams UK initiative, in which major banks, telcos, and technology vendors in the UK collaborate to combat fraud, as well as the Association of Banks’ standing committee on fraud, where banks in Singapore share best practices and work together to implement anti-scam safeguards.
Goh added that Singapore’s government CIO office, GovTech, will join Global Signal Exchange (GSE), a collaboration between GASA, Oxford Information Labs, and Google, which aims to pull together organisations to share information to fight scams.
Specifically, companies on the platform contribute data “signals” mostly comprising IP addresses, links, and URLs used by scammers.
Such information are commonly shared as they are unlikely to fall under data privacy laws and, hence, are less complex to process before they can be shared, said Emily Taylor, CEO Oxford Information Labs and co-founder of Global Signal Exchange.
GSE currently has more than 400 million signals, up from 40 million since its launch in January last year, said Taylor.
More than 100 organisations have signed up or applied to join the platform, with Meta and Microsoft added to the mix in July 2025.
With its addition, GovTech will be the first government agency to join GSE, Taylor said.
The Singapore agency will send scam signals, including scam-tainted websites, according to Tan Kiat How, Senior Minister of State for Ministry of Digital Development and Ministry of Health, who was speaking during a fireside chat at the summit.
Reiterating the importance of trust, Tan said scammers may use different tactics, but share a common target in exploiting consumers’ trust.
The erosion of this trust will slow down the pace of digitalisation and hold back progress of global economies, he said. There is significant opportunity cost, he added.
The ability to detect, and prevent and block scams pre-emptively, alongside public education, are key components in Singapore's fight against scams, according to Goh.
Just as critical are firm enforcement action against scammers and efforts to recover scam proceeds, and encouragement for victims to report scams. he said.
He noted that Singapore's initiatives in raising public awareness, for instance, led to a 26% dip in scam cases In the first half of 2025, compared to the same period last year. Scam losses also dropped by 13%.
Such efforts include the Hack for Good scheme, in which the government worked with industry partners to tailor public education content for different target audiences. The programme features a simulated scam experience that mirrors, step by step, how real-world scams take place.
He also stressed the need for international collaboration and proactive industry-led action to combat scams.
