Meta has taken action against more than 3.7 million scam-linked accounts, pages and pieces of content on Facebook and Instagram this year, drawing on intelligence shared by the Singapore Police Force. The figures, announced by the company, highlight both the scale of organised online fraud and the growing importance of cooperation between technology platforms and law-enforcement agencies.
Scale of the Disruption
According to Meta, the total comprises three main waves of enforcement in 2026. Between January and June, the company acted against more than 113,000 entities and pages connected to fraud and scams, the majority involving investment schemes that promised high or guaranteed returns. In June, ahead of the school-holiday period, a further operation targeted more than 33,600 entities linked to e-commerce scams that used misleading prices, fake promotions and artificial urgency. In July, Meta removed or restricted over 3.6 million “shell pages”—accounts that appeared empty and inactive but had been prepared as ready-made infrastructure for future scam campaigns.
Taken together, these actions exceed 3.7 million. Company executives emphasised that police information allowed investigators to move beyond isolated takedowns and to dismantle wider networks, often acting against several related assets for each lead received.
The Nature of Shell Pages
Shell pages represent a relatively new tactic. They carry little or no content and do not immediately violate platform rules, making them harder to detect through conventional automated systems. Once activated, however, they can be rapidly populated with scam advertisements or fraudulent profiles. By acting on signals from the Singapore police, Meta was able to neutralise a large volume of this latent infrastructure before it could be put to use.
The company described the approach as shifting from reactive removal of individual violating accounts to proactive disruption of the ecosystems that support scams.
Why Collaboration Matters
Online scammers routinely operate across multiple platforms and jurisdictions. No single company possesses a complete view of their activities. Information sharing with the Singapore Police Force, developed over approximately two years, helps close that gap. Police tips have enabled Meta to identify patterns and connections that might otherwise remain invisible, while Meta’s scale allows rapid action against large numbers of related accounts.
Executives involved in the partnership noted that for each entity flagged by the police, the company was often able to act against several additional linked assets. The collaboration has also worked in the other direction, with platform data assisting Singaporean investigations, including earlier cases involving unlawful remote betting.
Types of Scams Targeted
Investment scams formed a major part of the first-half enforcement. These typically lure victims with promises of easy or outsized returns and frequently use impersonation of trusted figures or fabricated success stories. E-commerce scams exploited seasonal shopping periods, offering implausibly cheap goods or tickets and creating pressure to buy quickly. Both categories rely on polished social-media presence and paid distribution to reach large audiences.
Meta has also reported removing tens of millions of scam advertisements across its platforms during the year, the majority detected before users reported them. The company acknowledges that scammers increasingly employ artificial intelligence to generate realistic fake profiles, images and code, raising the technical bar for detection.
Broader Context and Limitations
The numbers underscore the industrial scale of online fraud. Even large-scale takedowns do not eliminate the underlying problem; new accounts and pages can be created quickly, and operators adapt their methods. Sustained reduction in harm requires continuous improvement in detection systems, faster cross-border information flows and public awareness that reduces the success rate of social-engineering tactics.
Singapore has treated scam prevention as a high priority, combining public education, banking safeguards and active engagement with technology companies. The Meta partnership is presented by both sides as a working model that could be expanded with other platforms and in other jurisdictions.
Looking Ahead
Meta indicated that it intends to build on the Singapore collaboration and to pursue similar arrangements elsewhere in the region. For users, the immediate effect of the latest actions is the removal of a large volume of potential scam infrastructure. For investigators and platform safety teams, the episode demonstrates the practical value of combining law-enforcement intelligence with the reach of major social networks.
Scams will continue to evolve. The ability of platforms and police to share timely, actionable information may determine how effectively those evolutions are met. The disruption of more than 3.7 million scam-linked assets in partnership with the Singapore Police Force shows what coordinated action can achieve; maintaining that momentum will require ongoing commitment from both technology companies and public authorities.
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