According to its anti-scam measures in Singapore, Facebook Marketplace has been rated the lowest out of six e-commerce platforms, accounting for almost 50% of e-commerce scams in 2023.
In a Ministry of Home Affairs press release, the platform received one out of four safety ticks for the third consecutive year. Carousell received two ticks, while Amazon, Lazada, Qoo10, and Shopee received four. The Inter-Ministry Committee on Scams published these ratings, which are updated annually, in the 2024 e-commerce marketplace Transaction Safety Ratings. The four categories are:
- User authenticity.
- Transaction safety.
- Availability of loss remediation channels for consumers.
- The effectiveness of anti-scam measures.
E-commerce scams are among the most common types in Singapore, with 9,783 cases reported in 2023, double the number in 2022. Nearly 50% of these scams were conducted on Facebook, with cases surging from 1,138 2022 to 4,550 in 2023.
Facebook and Carousell are the only platforms that still need to implement all the safety features on the TSR. Shopee was awarded four ticks in 2024, up from three last year. The number of reported e-commerce scams was down 65%, from 311 cases in 2022 to 109 cases in 2023.
The MHA urges e-commerce marketplaces to implement critical safety features to protect their users from scams, particularly user verification against government-issued documentation and secure payment options. The Singapore Police Force has co-located staff with the police at the Anti-Scam Command to work with the platforms, and Carousell and Shopee are already physically co-locating their staff at the ASCom.
