Singapore tells Apple, Google to clamp down on government spoofing

Singapore police have ordered Apple and Google to prevent scams impersonating government agencies on their messaging platforms, the city-state's home affairs ministry said Tuesday.

Part of efforts to protect the public from rising scams, the tech giants must block or filter accounts and group chats that mimic Singapore government agency identities on Apple's iMessage and Google Messages by the end of November, the ministry said in a statement.

It added that Apple and Google "have indicated that they will comply" with the order, which also demands changes to how profile names of unknown senders are displayed.

Government agencies have been using the "gov.sg" message ID to help recipients verify legitimate communication, but scammers have been using it, too, exploiting the lack of some safeguards on messaging platforms.

The home affairs ministry said there was "a need to put in place measures to deter the abuse of iMessage and Google Messages by scammers".

If the companies fail to comply, they could face fines of up to one million Singapore dollars ($768,000).

Google said it was "collaborating with the government to implement pre-emptive measures to help prevent the spoofing of government agencies' names" on its messaging platform.

"We share Singapore's goal of keeping Singaporeans safe online," Google told AFP in a statement.

Apple could not immediately be reached for comment.

On Facebook, Singapore police had already ordered parent company Meta to clamp down on a growing number of scammers pretending to be government officials.

Source: EconomicTimes
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