Meta actioned 3.6 million empty Pages before scammers could use them.
Meta has published what its Singapore police partnership removed: 3.6 million empty Pages in July, and 113,000 scam entities in six months.
Meta has published the results of a two-year information sharing partnership with the Singapore Police Force, and the headline number is about Pages.
In a post on 23 September the company says that in July 2026 it took action against more than 3.6 million shell pages, which it describes as Pages that look empty and harmless, with no ads and no violating content, pre-built so a scam campaign can be switched on at a moment’s notice.
The wider figures come from the same post. Between January and June 2026, working from police information, Meta actioned more than 113,000 entities and pages tied to fraud and scams on Facebook and Instagram, predominantly investment scams promising guaranteed or high returns. A June operation aimed at e-commerce scams ahead of the school holidays, covering misleading pricing, fake promotions for well known brands and exaggerated product claims, actioned more than 33,600 entities. Meta says the police signals led it to action more than five times the number of assets it was handed.
No rule changed, and no date was given
This is an account of enforcement already carried out, not a policy announcement. Meta gives no date for anything new, does not say how a Page is judged to be a shell page, and does not say what distinguishes a pre-built scam Page from a dormant or newly created business Page. Nothing in the post describes a route back for a Page removed in a sweep of that size.
Two other figures came with it. Meta says it has removed 65 million scam ads from Facebook and Instagram so far this year, with 94% of them taken down before anyone reported them. And across two weeks in May and June, a US Department of Justice operation involving Meta, Microsoft, Coinbase and Starlink alongside police in five countries disrupted 1.4 million accounts, pages and groups across Facebook and Instagram, with 63 arrests made by the Royal Thai Police.
What it means for brands
The shell page line is the one to read twice. If your brand keeps Pages that exist and do nothing, a holding Page for a launch, a regional Page that never started posting, an account an agency set up years ago, those Pages match the shape Meta removed 3.6 million of in a single month. The post does not say a legitimate empty Page is at risk, and it does not say one is safe.
This week, list every Facebook Page and Instagram account your brand owns, including the ones nobody posts to, and either give them real content and a working link or close them. While the list is open, search for accounts using your name and logo and report the ones that are not yours. Meta’s own description of this work is that it acts on police signals rather than waiting for individual reports, so a report you file is not the fastest route it has, but it is still the route you have.
Sources
The NBK Social briefing
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