Singapore PM’s Deepfakes ‘Used to Sell Crypto’

People are circulating deepfakes of Singapore’s prime minister, Lawrence Wong, to sell cryptocurrency, money-making schemes and permanent residency application services, the country’s leader says.

Wong said he had seen some of the videos online in posts on the social media sites Facebook and X. He called on the people not to be complacent and not to “get scared of or respond to these kinds of scams or pass on personal information.” The posts showed screenshots of Wong under a red sign that said they were scams.

He encouraged the public to inform the city-state’s Scamshield website about suspicious content.

Singapore has doubled down on legislation and public education, and has ramped up its police response in the face of a surge in financial scams and cybercrime in recent years.

In January, parliament voted in favor of a law allowing the police to block the bank accounts of people suspected of being victims of a scam.

It was initially aimed at defending would-be victims against scams perpetrated by telephone or from another distance, but then expanded to cover old-fashioned swindles.

Scam victims in Singapore lost a record S$1.1 billion (US$827 million) in 2024, as the number of cases grew by almost 11% to 51,501 from the previous year, according to police figures.

The total amount of money lost was up 70% compared to 2023. Much of the reported fraud centered on sending money from bank accounts at the behest of offenders.

Earlier this week, the government announced that it would consider caning as punishment for certain scam-related offences. Corporal punishment is currently used in the country for offences including extortion, serious sexual offences and vandalism.