Rise in criminal activity, scams on Telegram worrying

Scams and other criminal activity on Telegram are extremely concerning, with scammers adding unsuspecting victims into chatgroups to cheat them.

Minister of State for Home Affairs Sun Xueling said this on Oct 21 at the Global Anti-Scam Summit Asia 2024, at the Suntec Singapore Convention and Exhibition Centre.

She said scammers have pivoted to online platforms, with Telegram emerging as a platform of concern.

She said: “Specifically, we have observed that scammers are creating and adding unsuspecting victims into channels and chatgroups on Telegram, and deceiving them into parting with their monies.”

In the first half of 2024, the number of scam cases reported on Telegram spiked by 137 per cent, as compared to the same period in 2023.

Common scam types perpetrated on Telegram include investment scams and job scams.

Ms Sun added that criminal activities on Telegram are not limited to scams.

A recent report by the United Nations found that criminal networks and syndicates used Telegram extensively to conduct large-scale illicit activities.

Ms Sun said: “These include the sale of hacked data, including credit card details and passwords, as well as data-stealing malware on Telegram channels. This is extremely concerning.”

The UN report was among the latest allegations to be levied against the app since France charged its boss Pavel Durov with allowing criminal activity on the platform.

The Summit is organised by the Global Anti-Scam Alliance (Gasa) and ends on Oct 22.

The event brings together law enforcement, government representatives and those from the banking and private sectors to discuss how to tackle the latest scam trends.

In her opening speech, Ms Sun revealed the recently launched 1799 anti-scam helpline has been receiving an average of 250 calls daily.

The helpline is part of the Scamshield Suite, which consolidated anti-scam measures and was launched in September.

The ScamShield app, which was first launched in November 2020, was also enhanced and has had more than 1.1 million downloads so far, said Ms Sun.

The app uses artificial intelligence to identify and alert users to potential scam threats on WhatsApp, Telegram and weblinks.

Ms Sun said Telegram recently announced it would be updating its privacy policy to share IP addresses and phone numbers of errant users with the authorities when legal orders are issued.

She said while this was a good effort, enforcement is often too late as victims would have already lost their money to scammers by the time Telegram shares this information with the authorities.

She urged Telegram to strengthen its user verification measures and tighten the usage of chatgroups and channels to prevent victims from being reached by scammers.

In her speech, Ms Sun thanked Meta for their anti-scam measures, saying the Singapore Government was working with them to put in place user verification processes against Government-issued records.

Meta has also installed verification processes for selected Facebook users, and is exploring measures on WhatsApp to stop unwanted contact where possible.

Gasa’s Asia Scam Report 2024 found that in Asia, more than US$688.42 billion was lost to scams in the past year.

The study surveyed almost 25,000 people across 13 populations in the region, including about 1,100 people from Singapore.

A previous study conducted by Gasa with data service provider ScamAdviser found that scammers stole an estimated US$1.02 trillion (S$1.4 trillion) globally between August 2022 and August 2023.

This is compared with US$55.3 billion lost for the whole of 2021, and US$47.8 billion lost in 2020.

In Singapore, more than $2.7 billion has been lost to scams since 2019, with victims losing a record of over $385.6 million in the first half of 2024.