SINGAPORE – Social media company Meta is aiming to roll out a shared intelligence platform with local banks in Singapore to combat the scam scourge.

This comes as the company looks to form a closer partnership with the Republic’s law enforcement agencies to dismantle scam syndicates.

First unveiled in the United Kingdom and Australia in 2024, Meta’s Fraud Intelligence Reciprocal Exchange (Fire) is a platform that allows banks to share threat intelligence with the firm directly.

Speaking to the media on June 12, Meta’s Singapore and Asean head of public policy Clara Koh said the firm is ready to roll out the programme globally through an industry consortium – the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Centre.

She said that currently, Meta’s customers who become victims of scams on its platforms have to report their experience to the firm.

With Fire, Meta – the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp – will also be able to receive intelligence on scammers or victims from banks.

Ms Koh said the platform allows Meta to analyse data and remove the scammers’ ability to commit crimes.

“But at the same time, we use the signals and patterns or behaviours of the actors to help our machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) actually better detect the bad actors.

“So yes, we are working with a few local banks to try and get them onboarded into the programme,” she added.

She said more details will be shared at a later date.

During a six-month pilot with UK banks NatWest and Metro Bank, Meta was able to remove some 20,000 accounts run by scammers from 185 website addresses shared by the banks.

Ms Koh was one of the panellists at an anti-scam awareness event organised by Meta on June 12 at the firm’s office at Marina One.

The panel also included the Singapore Police Force’s Superintendent Rosie Ann McIntyre, who is assistant director of the Scam Public Education Office’s operations department, and the National Crime Prevention Council’s Mr Nicholas Khoo.