On the surface, a digital page can look like almost nothing. There may be no advertisement, no suspicious post, no urgent message, and no obvious sign that something is waiting behind the screen. Yet beneath that stillness, technology can preserve an infrastructure prepared for a different moment. In Singapore, investigators and Meta have been looking closely at that quieter layer of the online world.
Meta said on Sept. 23 that its cooperation with the Singapore Police Force had led to action against nearly 3.8 million scam-linked entities, pages, and accounts on Facebook and Instagram during 2026. The effort represents a shift toward identifying networks and infrastructure rather than simply removing individual pieces after scams have already appeared.
The largest portion involved what Meta describes as “shell pages.” More than 3.64 million of these pages were removed in July, according to the company and Singapore police. The pages had not necessarily been used in scams yet; instead, they could be created in advance and later activated as part of broader campaigns.
The idea changes the way an online scam can be understood. Rather than beginning with a fraudulent message appearing suddenly on a user’s screen, preparation may take place much earlier. A dormant page can remain quiet, gradually forming part of a network until the moment arrives when it can be given a purpose. The digital landscape, in that sense, can contain activity that is invisible until it moves.
From January through June, Meta also took action against more than 113,000 entities and pages connected to fraud and scams after receiving information from Singapore police. The material was predominantly associated with investment scams, including schemes that promised guaranteed or unusually high returns.
A separate operation in June focused on e-commerce scams ahead of the school holiday period. Meta and the Singapore Police Force acted against more than 33,600 entities, with examples involving misleading prices, fake promotions for recognizable brands, exaggerated product claims, and artificial urgency designed to encourage people to transfer money.
The cooperation has developed over two years, with police intelligence helping Meta identify patterns that might be difficult to see from a single platform or individual report. Singapore police said more than 20,000 Meta accounts, pages, and pieces of content were referred between January and June after signals associated with scam activity were detected.
The wider response also includes efforts to make users more aware of digital security. Meta, the Singapore Police Force, and the National Crime Prevention Council have promoted tools such as two-factor authentication and passkeys, while encouraging people to use local resources for identifying and responding to scams. Meta said its related public education campaign had reached 1.6 million people in Singapore.
The latest figures show how the boundaries of online security continue to move. A page that appears empty can still form part of a larger structure, while information shared between technology companies and law enforcement can reveal connections that individual users cannot see. For Singapore, the latest operation places that hidden infrastructure at the center of its ongoing effort to disrupt online fraud before it reaches more people.
Image Disclaimer Illustrations were created with AI tools and are intended only as conceptual visual representations, not authentic photographs.
Sources Channel NewsAsia Singapore Police Force Meta The Straits Times TechNode Global
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