Online scammers have recently upped their game by using politicians’ names and images as well as mimicking mainstream media sites to create fake news to lure unwary victims. Conmen touting crypto-currency “investments” have used photographs of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Senior Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam and Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat in fake news stories which look like articles from The Straits Times, Lianhe Zaobao and The New Paper.

Judging from statistics, such tactics can work. Between September and November last year, the police received reports from people who have lost some $78,000 in total to such misleading online articles. With the mushrooming of social media usage and text messaging apps such as WhatsApp have come accompanying hazards.