Singapore recorded fewer scam cases in the first half of 2026 compared to last year, continuing a new downward trend since 2025.
While the scam situation has improved, the police said scams remain the most prevalent crime type in Singapore and continue to be a national priority.
In the latest mid-year scam and cybercrime brief published Wednesday (Aug 25), the Singapore Police Force said the 16,821 total scam cases in the first six months of this year is a 14.4 per cent decrease from the 19,644 cases in the same period last year.
Less money was lost to scams this year — losses fell 17.9 per cent to about $410.6 million from about $500.2 million in the previous year.
Cases involving losses of $100,000 or more also dipped by 24.5 per cent compared to the first half of 2025.
Nearly seven in 10 scam cases overall involved losses of less than $5,000, with the median loss per case coming out to $1,350.
In 80.8 per cent of cases, scammers did not gain direct control of victims’ accounts but manipulated them into making monetary transactions — a slight uptick from 78.8 per cent last year.
More scams involving Pokemon trading cards
Police said the top five scam types this year are e-commerce scams, phishing scams, investment scams, job scams, and government officials impersonation scams.
A total of 3,865 e-commerce scams were reported in the first six months of 2026, an increase of 19.3 per cent from 3,240 during the same period in 2025.
Cases involving Pokemon trading cards more than doubled to 605 cases from 279 cases last year, accounting for 15.7 per cent of this year’s total reported e-commerce scam cases.
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Victims of e-commerce scams collectively lost about $8.3 million; 18.9 per cent more than the $7 million recorded last year.
The police also warned about a rising “pre-order” trend, where victims came across listings of Pokemon trading cards or other popular collectibles and merchandise, such as K-pop lightsticks online.
Scammers would persuade victims to transfer a “deposit” or make full payment upfront, with the date of delivery usually months away.
Victims realised they had been tricked when they failed to receive the products by then, or when they saw online posts from other buyers who had been scammed by the same seller.
Investment scams see highest losses
Among all scam types, victims of investment scams lost the most money.
The total loss for such cases stood at $169.8 million in the first half of 2026, down slightly from $178.9 million in 2025.
Investment scams also make up the third highest case numbers, with 2,256 cases reported in the first six months.
The police said it has observed a new trend involving online advertisements offering free investment tips or strategies, which impersonates credible entities such as NUS and MooMoo.
Victims would leave their contact details and be contacted by scammers and invited into “investment learning communities” on WhatsApp, or redirected upon clicking the advertisements to contact scammers via a phone number and invited to join these chat groups.
Scammers posing as mentors in the groups would provide seemingly reliable investment tips and stock picks. Scammers posing as members would attest to the “good advice” given by “mentors”, further enticing victims to seek out “mentors” to invest.
Victims were instructed to transfer funds to specified bank accounts or cryptocurrency wallets or make payments via their bank cards.
The police also flagged another concerning trend where victims would hand over large amounts of cash and valuables to scam mules under the belief that they were making legitimate investments.
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Person scammed of $2.1 million in cryptocurrency
Cryptocurrency losses accounted for about $65.5 million, or about 16 per cent of total scam losses in the first half of 2026.
Noting that it is a decrease of 43 per cent from $114.9 million lost during the same period in 2025, the police said scammers leverage cryptocurrency as transactions are irreversible and difficult to trace, making asset recovery extremely challenging.
Tether, Ethereum, and USD Coin were the top cryptocurrencies lost, making up about 95.3 per cent of total cryptocurrency scam losses.
In one social media impersonation scam case, the victim lost about $2.1 million in cryptocurrency.
The police said the Anti-Scam Centre successfully froze over $8 million in cryptocurrency scammed from victims in the first half of 2026.
Anti-scam initiatives
To combat online scams, the police issued new codes of practice for online messaging and conferencing services, social media services and e-commerce services under the Online Criminal Harms Act on Monday (Aug 17).
Under the code, messaging platforms must introduce measures that make it harder for an unknown person to contact another user while social media platforms will be required to check the identities of advertisers.
The police said on Wednesday that other anti-scam initiatives include the discontinuing of the PayNow nickname feature and introduction of passkeys as a new login method for Singpass.
In the first half of 2026, more than 2,900 suspected money mules and scammers were investigated, and at least 470 have been charged in court.
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lim.kewei@asiaone.com
