Written Reply to Parliamentary Question on Facilitating Anti-Scam Practices Among E-Commerce Platforms

Question:

Mr Derrick Goh: To ask the Minister for Home Affairs (a) how may the Ministry better facilitate cross-learning of anti-scam best practices among e-commerce platforms; (b) whether there has been a shift in Meta’s posture since calls for it to step up anti-scam measures; (c) how effective has the co-location of the staff of Carousell and Shopee at police's Anti-Scam Command office been in reducing scams arising from their business platforms; and (d) how does the Ministry intend to engage more e-commerce platforms to do the same.

Answer:

Mr K Shanmugam, Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for Law:

1. In May 2022, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) launched the E-commerce Marketplace Transaction Safety Ratings (TSR), which assigns ratings to e-commerce platforms based on the extent to which they have implemented critical anti[1]scam features. The TSR strengthens the accountability of the platforms to the public, and nudges them to do more to tackle e-commerce scams. MHA has also worked with industry stakeholders, including e-commerce platforms, to revise the national standards for e-commerce transactions. These standards, known as Technical Reference 76, now include additional guidelines to ensure merchant authenticity and improve transaction security.

2. MHA has regularly engaged Meta on the requirements of the Online Criminal Harms Act, in particular, with regard to upcoming Codes of Practice for designated online service providers to do more to protect their users against scams. Meta is aware of the timeline for the Codes to be introduced and the Government’s expectations. We will not hesitate to take designated online service providers to task if they do not comply with the Codes’ requirements.

3. Since the first quarter of this year, Carousell and Shopee have co-located their staff with the Police at the Anti-Scam Command. This has allowed the Police to screen and perform sense-making on scam accounts in real-time, improved the turnaround time by platforms to take down these scam accounts or listings, and strengthened the working relationship between the Police and the platforms. We have been engaging the other online platforms, including Meta, to also co-locate their staff at the Anti-Scam Command, and will consider mandating this if necessary.