The tech giants have until November 30 to comply with the directives, said the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Singapore orders Google, Apple to curb govt impersonation on messaging services

SINGAPORE (The Straits Times/ANN) --   Tech giants Apple and Google have been directed to prohibit accounts on their messaging services from using names that spoof Singapore government agencies, in a move to protect the public from impersonation scams.
By November 30, Apple and Google must prevent accounts and group chats on iMessage and Google Messages from using names that spoof the “gov.sg” sender ID or other local government agencies, or they must filter out messages from such senders, said the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on November 25.
In addition, the profile names of unknown senders must either not be displayed, or be shown less prominently than their phone numbers, which would help users better identify and exercise caution with unknown persons.
Local authorities have been using the “gov.sg” sender ID since July 2024 to help the public more easily identify legitimate government messages.
However, this does not apply to messages sent via iMessage and Google Messages. As a result, members of the public might be misled by messages from unknown senders using the “gov.sg” ID via these services, which are not easily distinguishable from regular messages, said the ministry in a statement.
As the police have seen scams involving the impersonation of other registered sender IDs – including over 120 cases of scammers impersonating SingPost – measures need to be taken to deter abuse of the two messaging services, said the authorities.
“Apple and Google have indicated that they will comply with the Implementation Directives,” said the ministry, which added that this order was issued on November 24 under the Online Criminal Harms Act (OCHA).

(Latest Update November 26, 2025)