Meta takes action against 3.7 million scam-linked 'shell pages' and accounts in Singapore police partnership
Meta says the takedowns mark a shift from removing individual accounts to dismantling entire scam networks.
Meta says it took down over 3.6 million "shell pages" in July 2026. (Image: Meta)
This audio is generated by an AI tool.
SINGAPORE: Meta said on Wednesday (Sep 23) that it has removed or restricted millions of scam-linked "shell pages" and accounts on Facebook and Instagram this year, aided by intelligence from the Singapore police.
The bulk of the action involved 3.64 million so-called "shell pages" that had not yet been used for scams but were set up as infrastructure that could later be activated for scam campaigns, said Meta.
Meta described shell pages as a “newer scam vector” identified through its ongoing information-sharing collaboration with the Singapore Police Force (SPF).
“These pages look empty and harmless – no ads or violating content. But scammers had pre-built infrastructure, ready to be activated for scam campaigns at a moment's notice,” said Meta in a press release.
The takedowns are part of a two-year effort between Meta and the police to build an information-sharing partnership that proactively identifies and removes scam content, rather than responding to individual reports.
“This collaboration focuses on proactive network disruption – where SPF information helps Meta's investigators identify and dismantle entire ecosystems of bad actors,” said Meta.
Similarly, it said, Meta's information aided SPF in the arrest of seven men last year for their suspected involvement in a transnational unlawful remote betting operation.
TACKLING INVESTMENT AND E-COMMERCE SCAMS
Building on information from SPF, Meta took action against more than 113,000 entities and pages connected to fraud and scams on Facebook and Instagram between January and June. Most of the content involved investment scams, where victims are lured with promises of guaranteed or high returns.
“The information shared by SPF resulted in Meta actioning more than five times the number of assets flagged,” said the firm.
“That's not just accounts being taken down one by one. It's the dismantling of interconnected networks where disabling one node leads investigators to connected scammers.”
Meta and SPF also conducted an operation in June this year to tackle e-commerce scams in anticipation of the school holiday and the seasonal rise in scams, taking action against more than 33,600 entities.
This included e-commerce scams which promoted misleading pricing, fake promotional tactics for well-known brands, exaggerated product claims and a sense of urgency and scarcity, said Meta.
"Scammers count on the fact that no single organisation sees the full picture. What we've built with the Singapore Police Force turns that assumption on its head,” said Mr Daryl Poon, Meta’s director of law enforcement outreach for the Asia-Pacific region.
“Their information helps us identify threats we might not see on our own, and our ability to act at scale means those networks can be dismantled before they reach more people.”
IMPORTANCE OF COLLABORATION
Senior Assistant Commissioner of Police Justin Wong, commander of the SPF’s Cyber Command, said that the SPF has long recognised that tackling sophisticated scam networks requires collaboration with international and private stakeholders.
“By partnering closely with industry partners, we can share scam signals that allow our partners to take action to disrupt the criminal infrastructure behind these scams,” he said.
“This recent operation demonstrates the power of police and private sector collaboration – scam infrastructure was decisively taken down, cutting off scammers’ ability to defraud Singaporeans.”
Meta, SPF and the National Crime Prevention Council (NCPC) have also collaborated on public education campaigns designed to protect Singaporeans from scams.
This includes the One Step Ahead campaign, which encourages the public to turn on in-app security features to enhance account protection, such as two-factor authentication and passkeys for Facebook and Instagram and WhatsApp security features such as Linked Device Notifications, said Meta.
The campaign also promotes local resources such as the ScamShield website where users can learn more about different scam types and how to stay safe, said the tech giant.
The campaign has reached 1.6 million people in Singapore, said Meta.
“Scams are a global industry, run across platforms, apps, and borders. Meta’s work with the Singapore Police Force shows that shared information, acted on quickly, changes the equation. Because the best defence against organised crime is an equally organised response,” said Meta.
