Singapore orders Apple, Google to prevent government spoofing on messaging services

[SINGAPORE] Singapore has ordered tech giants Apple and Google to implement safeguards preventing the impersonation of government agencies on their messaging platforms by Nov 30, 2025.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) announced on Tuesday (Nov 25) that the Singapore Police Force issued implementation directives to both companies under the Online Criminal Harms Act, compelling them to close security gaps on iMessage and Google Messages.

The directives come as the authorities seek to plug a loophole where scammers bypass short message service, or SMS safeguards, such as the “gov.sg” sender ID.

Under the new orders, Apple and Google must filter out or prevent the display of accounts and group chats that spoof “gov.sg” or other government agency names.

Furthermore, to alert users to potential risks, the companies are required to ensure that the profile names of unknown senders are either hidden or displayed less prominently than their phone numbers.

The “gov.sg” SMS sender ID has been used since July 2024 to help the public identify legitimate government communication and protect themselves from impersonation scams. Other safeguards such as the SMS Sender ID Registry (SSIR) have also been imposed on SMSes.

However, these protections currently do not extend to messages sent via iMessage and Google Messages.

While government agencies do not use iMessage or Google Messages for official communication, MHA noted that the public often cannot easily distinguish these messages from legitimate SMSes, leading to a rise in impersonation scams.

“The police have already seen scams involving the impersonation of other SSIR-registered SMS sender IDs on iMessage and Google Messages, including over 120 cases involving the impersonation of SingPost,” the statement from MHA read.

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“There is therefore a need to put in place measures to deter the abuse of iMessage and Google Messages by scammers,” it added.

Apple and Google have indicated their compliance with the implementation directives.

“We urge the public to regularly update the iMessage and Google Messages apps on their mobile devices, to ensure that the latest anti-spoofing safeguards are in place,” MHA said.