Are you surprised to receive a friend request from Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat on Facebook?

Be careful, it’s probably not him.

On Wednesday (Oct 30), DPM Heng took to his own social network to share about the Facebook profiles that impersonated him.

Heng said the impostor even went so far as to add friends and send friend requests to those in his network.

“Please don’t be fooled by these impersonation accounts!” he wrote, adding that his official social media pages are verified with a blue tick.

His handle is @hengsweekeat, he added, “no spaces or numbers.”

The Deputy Prime Minister also urged his followers to be careful when they come across these fake accounts and report them on the platform.

In his post, he also thanked his followers who alerted him about the fake accounts.

In June, DPM Heng also warned of a phishing email scam that used his name, The Straits Times reported.

Other politicians also had fake accounts impersonating themincluding Health Minister Ong Ye Kung; Prime Minister of State, Ministry of Manpower and Ministry of Sustainability and Environment Koh Poh Koon; Minister of State for Internal Affairs and Social and Family Development Sun Xueling; and Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC MP Saktiandi Supaat.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Prime Minister Lawrence Wong used their likeness in deepfake scams.

Combating deepfake content

Singapore passed the Elections (Integrity of Online Advertising) (Amendment) Act on 15 October, introducing measures to restrict digitally manipulated content during elections.

While introducing the second reading of the bill in Parliament, Digital Development and Information Minister Josephine Teo played a 38-second deepfake video of herself to illustrate the harm of manipulated content.

In a social media post on October 22, in which she also shared the deepfake video, she said: “I explained that it only took one person an hour using the free online software. Imagine what scammers could do with more. time and more advanced tools!”

According to police statistics, there were 26,587 cases of fraud in the first half of 2024, an increase from 22,853 cases in the same period in 2023.

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