3.6m ‘shell pages’ on Facebook, Instagram found primed for scams after S’pore police tip-off: Meta

Singapore police handed Meta a list of 3.64 million dormant "shell pages" that could be weaponized for scams across Facebook and Instagram. These empty pages, often indistinguishable from legitimate ones, were created by syndicates to age without raising security flags. Once activated, they would interact to build a false sense of legitimacy before launching coordinated scam campaigns.

Meta, in partnership with the Singapore Police Force (SPF), had dismantled 113,000 scam-linked accounts and pages, 33,600 e-commerce fraud entities, and the 3.6 million shell pages by the first half of 2026. With the help of SPF, Meta also took action against over 33,600 e-commerce scam entities in June, anticipating the seasonal rise in scams.

They removed 65 million scam ads on the platforms, detecting 94% of them before they could be reported. This collaborative effort between Meta and the SPF, including the newly formed Cyber Command, is aimed at proactively disrupting scam networks before they can defraud unsuspecting Singaporeans.