Quicker cross-border cooperation needed to disrupt scams and crimes: S’pore, international police

Six panellists discussed ways to tackle cyber fraud and scams at Singapore International Cyber Week on Oct 15.

ST PHOTO: ARIFFIN JAMAR

Published Oct 15, 2026, 08:50 PM

Updated Oct 15, 2026, 08:50 PM

Foreign police and Singapore officers used fast WhatsApp sharing to stop a ransomware attack in Singapore, showing that quicker cross-border action can disrupt crime.

Europol said four Russian nationals linked to the 8Base group were arrested, 27 servers were taken down, and countries including Singapore, Thailand and the UK helped the probe.

Singapore says scams remain a major threat, with over $4 billion lost since 2019; police and Meta are stepping up action, while tougher laws for young scam mules are being planned.

SINGAPORE – German authorities were investigating a ransomware group in 2024, when they realised that the perpetrators were about to encrypt the systems of a company in Singapore.

Instead of relaying the information through official channels , which would have taken much longer , the officers sent a message on WhatsApp to their contacts in the Singapore Police Force.

Within 15 minutes of receiving the text, a group of Singaporean officers contacted the Bavarian officers to discuss the next step and then went to the company’s premises to disrupt the encryption and prevent damage to its servers.

Four Russian nationals were later arrested for their involvement in the incident . They were suspected of releasing a variant of ransomware to extort high-value payments from victims across Europe and other countries.

Twenty-seven servers linked to the criminal network were also taken down.

Countries including Singapore, Thailand, and the UK took part in the investigation.

The incident underscored the importance of international cooperation in disrupting scam syndicates and tackling cross-border crime , which was the theme of an event on Oct 15 at Singapore International Cyber Week 2026 .

“Information and intel sharing sounds highly sophisticated but in many instances, it’s very easy,” said Thomas Goger, deputy director of Germany’s Bavarian Central Office for the Prosecution of Cybercrime, during the session where he was a panellist.

He added that authorities should be willing to move more quickly.

The session also featured Manon Le Blanc, deputy head of the European External Action Service’s hybrid threats and cyber division; Chee Ching Yuin, assistant director from the investigations division at Singapore Police Force; Steve Rodhouse, director-general (threats) at the UK National Crime Agency; Pruchya Gummalaspituk, head of foreign affairs at the Central Investigation Bureau in the Royal Thai Police; Chan Hung head of cybercrime operations at Interpol; and Lea Wedekind, a policy and development specialist at Europol.

Interpol, headquartered in France, helps police forces worldwide cooperate to fight crime. Europol, based in The Hague, supports EU law enforcement agencies in tackling serious crime, cybercrime and terrorism, but has no direct arrest powers.

An estimated US$442 billion (S$566.93 billion) have been lost to scams across 42 countries, according to Global Anti-Scam Alliance’s global scams’ report.

Singapore has lost more than $4 billion to scams since 2019.

In the first six months of 2026, victims lost $410.6 million, down from $500.2 million during the same period in 2025. In total, $913.1 million were lost to scammers in 2025 .

In their mid-year statistics on Aug 26, Singapore police said that in the first half of 2026, they also disrupted over 47,000 scam-related mobile lines, 37,500 WhatsApp lines, 31,600 online monikers and 52,200 malicious websites.

Over 2,900 suspected money mules and scammers have been investigated, and at least 470 were charged in the first half of 2026.

On Oct 6, Senior Minister K. Shanmugam signalled that the Government will introduce tougher laws for young scam mules, saying it is “not the time to go soft” following a High Court ruling that allowed appeals seeking rehabilitation for young offenders.

Shanmugam, who is also Coordinating Minister for National Security, argued that lenient sentences could embolden scam syndicates to recruit more youth to facilitate their crimes.

The police noted that elderly victims aged 65 and above had the highest average losses across all age groups. Most of them fell prey to government official impersonation and investment scams.

Singapore has taken efforts to tackle this specific problem.

On Sept 3, 2025, Goh Pei Ming, Senior Minister of State for Home Affairs , first announced that the police and tech company Meta would work together to tackle the scam scourge here.

Goh, who was speaking at the Global Anti-Scam Summit Asia 2025, said the police would be able to issue an order to Meta to implement measures to address scam advertisements, accounts, profiles and business pages impersonating key government office-holders on Facebook.

In the first half of 2026, Meta in collaboration with Singapore authorities took action against 113,000 scam-linked accounts and pages on Facebook and Instagram, 33,600 e-commerce fraud entities and 3.6 million shell pages before they could be deployed, it said in September.

Chee on Oct 15 reiterated the importance of cooperation between the Republic and other law enforcement agencies and industry partners.

She said: “The exchanging of information is very important. Each of us has got a small piece of the puzzle. (In Singapore), we amass all the reports and intelligence that we have, and we try to work with the industry partners and come up with solutions that can help Singaporeans. If we can, this can be scaled to other jurisdictions, and this would then be able to benefit everyone in terms of prevention.”

Internet crimes and scams

10 月 15 日，在新加坡国际网络安全周上，六位专家小组讨论了应对网络欺诈和诈骗的方法。

圣路易斯照片：阿里芬·贾马尔

发布于2026年10月15日晚上8:50

更新于2026年10月15日晚上8:50

外国警方和新加坡警方利用 WhatsApp 快速分享信息，阻止了新加坡的一起勒索软件攻击，这表明更迅速的跨境行动可以打击犯罪。

欧洲刑警组织表示，与 8Base 组织有关联的四名俄罗斯公民已被逮捕，27 台服务器被关闭，包括新加坡、泰国和英国在内的国家协助了调查。

新加坡表示，诈骗仍然是一个重大威胁，自 2019 年以来已造成超过 40 亿美元的损失；警方和 Meta 正在加大力度打击诈骗，同时计划出台更严厉的法律来打击年轻的诈骗分子。

新加坡——2024 年，德国当局在调查一个勒索软件团伙时，发现犯罪分子正准备加密新加坡一家公司的系统。

警员们没有通过官方渠道传递信息（这会花费更长时间），而是通过 WhatsApp 向他们在新加坡警察部队的联系人发送了一条消息。

收到短信后 15 分钟内，一群新加坡官员联系了巴伐利亚官员，讨论下一步行动，然后前往该公司办公场所，破坏加密并防止其服务器受到损害。

随后，四名俄罗斯公民因涉嫌参与该事件被捕。他们被怀疑释放了一种勒索软件变种，向欧洲及其他国家/地区的受害者勒索高额赎金。

与犯罪网络有关的27台服务器也被关闭。

新加坡、泰国和英国等国参与了调查。

该事件凸显了国际合作在打击诈骗集团和应对跨境犯罪方面的重要性，这也是 2026 年 10 月 15 日在新加坡国际网络周上举办的活动的主题。

“信息和情报共享听起来非常复杂，但在很多情况下，它却非常容易，”德国巴伐利亚州网络犯罪检察署副署长托马斯·戈格尔在一次小组讨论会上说道。

他还补充说，当局应该愿意加快行动速度。

此次会议还邀请了欧洲对外行动署混合威胁和网络部门副主管马农·勒布朗；新加坡警察部队调查部门助理主任谢清云；英国国家犯罪调查局（威胁）总干事史蒂夫·罗德豪斯；泰国皇家警察中央调查局外事主管普鲁恰·古马拉斯皮图克；国际刑警组织网络犯罪行动主管陈雄；以及欧洲刑警组织政策和发展专家莉娅·韦德金德。

总部位于法国的国际刑警组织协助世界各地的警方合作打击犯罪。总部位于海牙的欧洲刑警组织支持欧盟执法机构打击严重犯罪、网络犯罪和恐怖主义，但没有直接逮捕权。

据全球反诈骗联盟发布的全球诈骗报告显示，全球 42 个国家因诈骗造成的损失估计高达 4420 亿美元（5669.3 亿新元）。

自 2019 年以来，新加坡因诈骗损失超过 40 亿美元。

2026 年上半年，受害者损失了 4.106 亿美元，低于 2025 年同期的 5.002 亿美元。2025 年，诈骗分子共造成 9.131 亿美元损失。

新加坡警方在 8 月 26 日发布的年中统计数据中表示，在 2026 年上半年，他们还捣毁了超过 47,000 条与诈骗有关的手机线路、37,500 条 WhatsApp 线路、31,600 个网络账号和 52,200 个恶意网站。

2026 年上半年，已有超过 2900 名涉嫌洗钱者和诈骗犯受到调查，至少有 470 人被起诉。

10 月 6 日，高级部长尚穆根表示，政府将对年轻的诈骗犯出台更严厉的法律，并称在高等法院裁定允许对年轻罪犯寻求改造的上诉之后，“现在还不是手软的时候”。

尚穆根同时也是国家安全统筹部长，他认为，从轻判决可能会助长诈骗集团招募更多年轻人来协助其犯罪活动。

警方指出，在所有年龄组中，65岁及以上的老年受害者平均损失最高。他们大多是冒充政府官员和投资诈骗的受害者。

新加坡已采取措施解决这一具体问题。

2025年9月3日，内政部高级政务部长吴佩明首次宣布，警方将与科技公司Meta合作，共同打击本地的诈骗活动。

吴先生在2025年亚洲全球反诈骗峰会上发表讲话时表示，警方将能够向Meta发出命令，要求其采取措施，打击在Facebook上冒充政府要员的诈骗广告、账户、个人资料和商业页面。

Meta在9月份表示，在2026年上半年，该公司与新加坡当局合作，在Facebook和Instagram上对113,000个与诈骗有关的账户和页面、33,600个电子商务欺诈实体和360万个空壳页面采取了行动，阻止了这些账户和页面被部署。

Chee 于 10 月 15 日重申了共和国与其他执法机构和行业伙伴合作的重要性。

她说：“信息交流非常重要。我们每个人都掌握着拼图的一小部分。（在新加坡），我们收集所有报告和情报，并努力与行业伙伴合作，提出能够帮助新加坡人的解决方案。如果可以，这种模式可以推广到其他地区，从而在预防方面惠及所有人。”

网络犯罪和诈骗