Singapore’s Senior Minister of State for the Ministry of Digital Development and Information and Ministry of Health Tan Kiat How, echoes the call for stronger defences, stressing that partnerships are central to the fight.
More than a third (37%) of adults in Southeast Asia believe public service organisations should bear primary responsibility for protecting citizens from scams, with 16% pointing to the government specifically. This is according to the State of Scams in Southeast Asia 2025 Report by Global Anti-Scam Alliance (GASA).
"Consumers are beginning to see digital safety as the fourth frontier of security, alongside land, sea and air borders. They feel that the governments have the primary responsibility to keep them safe. And these battles today are not fought with guns and tanks, but instead with text messages, deep fakes and phone calls [from the bad actors],” says Rajesh Sandhu, GASA’s advisor for Southeast Asia, at the alliance’s event in Singapore earlier today.
