The Singapore Police Force (SPF) is set to introduce a specialized Cyber Command this July, consolidating its effort against scams and cyber offences, announced Home Affairs Minister of State Goh Pei Ming at an anti-scam summit on May 11. Charged with leading Singapore’s defence against cyber threats, the unit will house personnel from investigative, intelligence, and operational divisions in a single entity.
Initially, the Cyber Command will include approximately 200 staff, sourced from the Criminal Investigation Department’s cybercrime squad and the Commercial Affairs Department’s Anti-Scam Command. As the team’s proficiency grows, the SPF aims to expand its roster to over 400 officers.
Central to the Command’s structure is a real-time Cyber Operations Centre, dedicated to ongoing surveillance and disruption of unlawful online conduct. Leveraging sophisticated analytics and automation tools, the centre will detect phishing schemes, fraudulent sites, and other scam frameworks in bulk, map out offenders’ networks, and neutralize them pre-emptively.
Upgrades to the Anti-Scam Centre will feature enlarged units focused on monitoring digital currency flows and applying blockchain analysis. The SPF will collaborate with banks and financial firms to immobilize and retrieve misappropriated assets, concurrently developing internal crypto-forensics capabilities.
Apart from scam enforcement, the Cyber Command will tackle organised cybercrime rings behind ransomware attacks, malware propagation, and transnational fraud. Its investigative teams will coordinate with foreign law-enforcement bodies to orchestrate operations against domestic and international threat groups. “Cybercrime transcends borders,” Mr. Goh remarked. “A robust global alliance is essential to dismantle these networks effectively.”
The newly formed Command will also spearhead public-private alliances for cybercrime enforcement in Singapore, revamping current structures to enhance data exchange, combined disruption measures, and joint investigations.
Nurturing talent remains a priority. The SPF intends to enlist and train a diverse pool of uniformed officers, civilian experts, and National Service Cybercrime Operators. Gradually, a specialised group of national servicemen adept in threat hunting and scam intervention will bolster the permanent staff.
In the previous year, Singapore logged 37,308 scam incidents—a decrease from 51,501 in 2024—yet perpetrators still leverage technical flaws and social-engineering tactics “rapidly and on a large scale,” cautioned Mr. Goh. Since 2019, the Anti-Scam Centre has reclaimed more than S$730 million. Legislative measures like the Online Criminal Harms Act and the Protection from Scams Act have supported these initiatives, obliging high-risk digital platforms to strengthen defences or incur sanctions.
Mr. Goh cited a recent Interpol report indicating that AI-driven fraud can yield up to 4.5 times greater profits than conventional scams, emphasising the need for strong safeguards in a deeply digitalised environment.
During the conference—co-hosted alongside delegates from France, the UAE, and the International Security Alliance—SPF personnel discussed escalating hurdles posed by crypto-related fraud. Assistant Superintendent Lee Hua Sheng reported that the crypto-tracing unit has processed over 2,800 matters since March 2025, adopting a proactive stance to curtail losses early.
Assistant Superintendent Shariff Munshi explained that the borderless, swift nature of digital-asset transactions renders them “rapid, irreversible, and intentionally opaque,” hampering attempts to halt illicit transfers post-execution. Special Constable Bryant Neo added that numerous victims succumb to “get-rich-quick” lures and overestimate the simplicity of reclaiming funds—underscoring the vital importance of public awareness in scam prevention.
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