PUBLISHED ONNovember 12, 2025 9:30 AMBYSean LerThe police have warned of a new method that scammers are deploying to fraudulently open accounts with payment service providers (PSPs) — using digitally modified copies of Singapore identity cards (IC).
Scammers would use a softcopy of a IC and use digital tools to replace the original facial image on that copy with another facial image.
They would then submit the doctored copy online to PSPs to set up payment service account. When PSPs conduct mandatory facial liveness checks, the scammers would then instruct an accomplice who resembles the doctored image to undergo the checks.
The police said some of the misused ICs belonged to victims of scams who had previously furnished softcopies to the scammers.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore has since alerted all financial institutions of this new modus operandi, and the affected PSPs have tightened measures.
It is an offence to forge a document or electronic record, including by making alterations to such record, with the intent to use it for the purpose of cheating.
Those found guilty of this offence may be sentenced up to 10 years' jail and fined.
Facial liveness detection is used by businesses to determine whether a selfie or video belongs to a real person or if it is a spoof or generated by artificial intelligence.
However, businesses which solely rely on facial liveliness detection are only checking for "liveliness" against the submitted document which has been doctored.
But businesses which utilise facial liveliness verification, are checking the "liveliness" against a trusted source which has authenticated and stored the profile of its users.
Singpass is an example of such a trusted source.
In these victims' cases, if the PSPs had used facial liveliness verification, the checks would have failed as the accomplice's face would not have matched with Singpass' database.
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