TL;DR
- Meta said on 23 September 2026 that Singapore Police Force information helped it act against about 3.7 million accounts, Pages and content this year.
- Between January and June 2026 Meta actioned 113,000+ scam-linked entities, more than 5x the number SPF originally flagged.
- A June 2026 e-commerce operation hit 33,600+ entities using fake promotions for well-known brands; in July Meta removed 3.6 million+ unused shell pages.
- Meta said it removed 65 million scam ads in 2026 so far, 94% before any report; the Royal Thai Police made 63 arrests in a separate May-June operation.
Meta said on 23 September 2026 that information shared by the Singapore Police Force (SPF) led it to take action against about 3.7 million accounts, Pages and pieces of content this year, most of them "shell pages" that scammers had set up in advance and never used. The figures come from a post on Meta's APAC newsroom describing a two-year information-sharing partnership between the company and Singapore's police.
For advertisers in Southeast Asia, the useful parts are less about the headline number and more about the tactics Meta describes: fake promotions using well-known brand names, and dormant Pages built in bulk so they can be switched on for a scam campaign at short notice. Both touch legitimate brands directly, because the scams borrow their names and customers.
What Meta announced
According to Meta's newsroom post, the partnership with SPF is built around proactive network disruption rather than handling single reports. SPF shares information, and Meta's investigators use it to find and remove connected networks of accounts. Meta reported three sets of results for 2026.
| Period | Operation | Result Meta reported |
|---|---|---|
| Jan to Jun 2026 | Network disruption using SPF information, mostly investment scams | Action against more than 113,000 entities and Pages on Facebook and Instagram, over 5x the number of assets originally flagged |
| June 2026 | Enhanced operation on e-commerce scams before school holidays | Action against more than 33,600 entities |
| July 2026 | Removal of pre-built "shell pages" flagged through SPF signals | Action against more than 3.6 million shell pages before use |
The "5x" figure is the part that describes how the partnership works. SPF flagged a set of assets, and Meta used those as starting points to find connected accounts, ending up actioning more than five times as many as were flagged. Meta described this as disabling one node and following the links to connected scammers.
The information flows both ways. Meta said its own information helped SPF arrest seven men in 2025 over their suspected involvement in a transnational unlawful remote betting operation. Senior Assistant Commissioner of Police Justin Wong, Commander of SPF's Cyber Command, said in the post that the force will work with Meta and other online service providers to expand data sharing. Daryl Poon, Meta's Director of Law Enforcement Outreach for APAC, said police information helps Meta find threats it might not see on its own.
The e-commerce scams used brand names
Meta said the June operation targeted e-commerce scams that promoted misleading pricing, "fake promotional tactics for well known brands", exaggerated product claims and a sense of urgency and scarcity. The post's introduction gives an example of the pattern: a luxury skincare brand offering deep discounts from a Page that did not exist the week before.
That matters to any brand that sells online in the region. When a scam Page runs a fake sale using a real brand's name and product photos, the customer who gets cheated usually blames the brand, and the brand's own ads compete against lookalike offers in the same feeds. Meta's post does not name the brands that were impersonated.
What a shell page is
The largest number in the announcement is the 3.6 million shell pages. Meta described them as Pages that look empty and harmless, with no ads and no violating content, but which scammers had built as ready-made infrastructure to activate for a campaign "at a moment's notice". SPF information flagged this pattern, and Meta said it acted against the Pages in July 2026 before they could be used, and is pursuing further disruptions of the same type.
Shell pages explain why scams can appear so quickly around a sale event or a holiday. The Pages already exist, sometimes with a history, so a scam campaign does not have to wait for new accounts to age. Removing them before activation is a different kind of enforcement from removing a scam ad after a user reports it.
Where Thailand appears in the post
Meta's post places the Singapore work inside a wider set of anti-scam operations. It says that across two weeks in May and June 2026, the US Department of Justice's Scam Center Strike Force brought Meta, Microsoft, Coinbase, Starlink and other companies together with the FBI, the Secret Service and law enforcement partners in the UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Thailand. Meta said the joint action disrupted more than a million online assets, including 1.4 million accounts, Pages and groups on Facebook and Instagram, 20,000 Microsoft accounts and thousands of Starlink kits, and that the Royal Thai Police arrested 63 people involved in scam operations.
The post does not describe a standing information-sharing arrangement with Thai authorities like the one with SPF. It does say Meta takes part in the Industry Accord Against Online Scams and Fraud and in the ASEAN Public Private Partnership Principles for Tackling Online Scams.
Meta's platform-wide numbers
Meta also gave a figure for its wider enforcement: 65 million scam ads removed from Facebook and Instagram so far this year, with 94% of them removed before anyone reported them. The post does not say how many scam ads were not caught, or what share of all ads the 65 million represents, so the number shows effort rather than coverage.
In Singapore, Meta, SPF and the National Crime Prevention Council run a public education campaign called "One Step Ahead". It encourages people to turn on two-factor authentication and passkeys for Facebook and Instagram and to use WhatsApp's Linked Device Notifications. Meta said the campaign has reached 1.6 million people in Singapore.
What the announcement does not say
- It does not break the 3.7 million headline figure down beyond the three operations above.
- It does not say whether any legitimate Pages were caught in the shell page removals, or how a business can appeal if its dormant Page was removed.
- It does not name the brands whose names were used in fake promotions.
- It does not announce a similar partnership in Thailand or any other ASEAN country.
The second point is worth watching. Many businesses in the region keep backup or regional Pages that sit dormant for long periods. Meta's description of shell pages, empty Pages with no ads and no content, would also fit some legitimate unused Pages. The post gives no detail on how Meta tells them apart.
What this means for Thai marketers
Thai brands face the same scam patterns Meta describes in Singapore: fake flash sales, lookalike Pages and investment scams that use celebrity or brand identity. A few practical steps follow from the announcement:
- Search Facebook and Instagram for your brand name before every major sale period, such as 9.9, 10.10, 11.11 and year-end campaigns, and report impersonating Pages early. Meta's June operation was timed for a holiday peak for the same reason.
- Tell customers where your official Pages and shops are, on your website and in your ads, so a fake discount is easier to spot.
- Review dormant Pages you own. Either give them basic activity and correct business details, or close the ones you no longer need, so they are not mistaken for, or taken over and turned into, shell infrastructure.
- Turn on two-factor authentication or passkeys for every admin on your Business Portfolio. Account takeover is one of the ways real Pages end up running scam ads.
Scam ads also compete for the same attention and inventory as legitimate campaigns. Clean account security and clear brand signals help real ads perform. If your team needs support running Facebook and Instagram ads or managing brand presence across social ad platforms, those basics are part of a sound setup.
FAQ
What did Meta and the Singapore Police Force announce?
Meta said information shared by the Singapore Police Force helped it act against about 3.7 million accounts, Pages and content in 2026. That included 113,000+ scam-linked entities in the first half, 33,600+ in a June e-commerce scam operation and 3.6 million+ shell pages in July.
What is a shell page on Facebook?
Meta used the term for Pages that look empty, with no ads and no violating content, but which scammers built in advance to activate for scam campaigns quickly. Meta said it removed more than 3.6 million of them in July 2026 before they were used.
Is there a similar partnership in Thailand?
The post does not describe one. It does say the Royal Thai Police arrested 63 people after a May to June 2026 joint operation led by the US Department of Justice's Scam Center Strike Force, in which Meta took part.
How many scam ads has Meta removed in 2026?
Meta said it has removed 65 million scam ads from Facebook and Instagram so far this year, and that 94% were removed before anyone reported them. It did not say how many scam ads were missed.
What should a brand do if scammers use its name?
Report the impersonating Pages and ads through Meta's reporting tools, publish your official Page and shop links on your own channels, and check for lookalikes before big sale events. Meta's post does not describe a new tool for brands, so the existing reporting routes still apply.
The Singapore numbers show what happens when a platform gets good signals from police: it can remove scam infrastructure before it goes live instead of chasing ads after the damage. For Thai brands, the practical response is to make impersonation harder to pull off and quicker to report.
