On the other hand, the e-commerce code applies to online services that facilitate e-commerce activities and “pose the highest risks of e-commerce scams among other services in Singapore”.

Facebook Marketplace, Facebook Advertisements, Facebook Pages and Carousell will be required to comply with the code by Dec 31. These platforms accounted for more than 70 per cent of e-commerce scams in 2023.

The code shares the same requirements as the online communication code, with two additional stipulations. 

Users must be verified against government-issued records if they advertise or post about the sale of goods and services, or if they intend to do so.

Services must provide payment protection mechanisms that verify the delivery of goods or services before releasing payment to sellers.

“These additional requirements are based on what MHA assesses to be more critical in protecting Singapore end-users from e-commerce scams,” the ministry said.

The online communication code, along with the code of practice for e-commerce services, will take effect on Jun 26, MHA said.

USER VERIFICATION REQUIREMENT

Under the e-commerce code, MHA will prioritise the implementation of user verification requirements, which it assessed to be the “most critical to curb scams”.

For a start, it will allow Carousell and Facebook Marketplace to only apply verification requirements on “risky sellers” before expanding to more users if the scam situation fails to improve.

“Risky sellers” are users identified by these platforms as potential sources of scams.

MHA said on Friday it will assess the effectiveness of Carousell’s measures to verify the identity of “risky sellers” between Jul 1 and Dec 31.

“If the number of e-commerce scams reported on Carousell does not drop significantly, MHA will require Carousell to verify the identity of all sellers by Apr 1, 2025,” it said.

A similar assessment will be conducted for Facebook Marketplace between Jun 1 and Nov 30, MHA added

MHA will require Facebook Marketplace to verify the identity of all sellers by Mar 1, 2025, if the number of e-commerce scams reported on the platform “does not drop significantly”.

MHA also said that it will require Facebook to verify the identity of all advertisers by Apr 1, 2025, if the number of scam reports arising from advertisements on Facebook “does not drop significantly”.

Between Jul 1 and Dec 31, MHA will “assess the effectiveness of Facebook’s measures to verify the identity of risky advertisers”, it added.

MHA said it will not implement the user verification measure for Facebook Pages for now to allow Facebook to “prioritise implementing user verification for its Marketplace and advertisements this year”.

In a statement to the media on Friday, Carousell said that its users will be required to verify their identities using Singpass if its system “detects behaviour similar to known scam patterns or policy violations”. Singpass verification is currently required only for two categories – property and tickets and vouchers.

The marketplace platform will also be launching a safety policy to educate users on “risky behaviours”, such as paying directly to the seller before receiving the item, said Tan Su Lin, Carousell’s chief of staff.