Singapore Scam Cases Drop 26%, Losses Fall to S$456.4M in H1 2025

The Singapore Police Force (SPF) has released its Mid-Year Scam and Cybercrime Brief 2025, reporting a 26% drop in scam cases, with 19,665 cases recorded in the first half of 2025, down from 26,563 in the same period last year. Total losses fell 12.6% to approximately S$456.4 million, compared to S$522.4 million in H1 2024. Cryptocurrency-related scams accounted for S$81.6 million, or 17.9% of total scam losses.

The Anti-Scam Command (ASCom) recovered over S$56.7 million in scam losses—S$39.7 million in non-crypto assets and S$17 million in cryptocurrency. ASCom and its partners also helped victims avert at least S$179 million in potential losses.

Despite the overall decline, several scam types remain of particular concern:

• Investment scams: 2,698 cases (down 19.2%), with losses topping S$145.4 million, the highest among all scam types.
• Government official impersonation scams: Cases surged 199.2% to 1,762, with losses rising 88.3% to S$126.5 million.
• Phishing scams: Most reported scam type with 3,779 cases (up 10.9%), and losses spiked 134% to S$30.4 million.
• Insurance services scams: A new scam type that emerged in 2025; 791 cases, with S$21.3 million lost.

In terms of case numbers, phishing scams, e-commerce scams, job scams, investment scams, and government officials impersonation scams were the top five scam types in the first half of 2025.

Source: SPF

Scammers primarily contacted victims via social media, messaging platforms, phone calls, and online shopping platforms. Meta-owned platforms—Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram—were exploited by scammers to contact victims in 37.3% of reported cases.

In H1 2025, 60.3% of scam victims were youths, young adults, and adults aged below 50. Although elderly victims remained a minority, their proportion more than doubled to 15.0%, up from 7.2% in H1 2024.

The SPF continues to collaborate with government and private sector partners to enhance scam intervention efforts. Following the implementation of the Protection from Scams Act on 1 July 2025, police are empowered to issue Restriction Orders (ROs) to banks, blocking transactions by individuals suspected of transferring funds to scammers. As of 20 August, two ROs have been issued to restrict the banking transactions of two individuals.