Visa-free Entry between China and Singapore Takes Effect on February 9th, Facilitating Travel and Boosting Tourism On February 9th, 2024, the visa-free policy between China and Singapore officially came into effect, simplifying the entry procedures for Chinese tourists holding ordinary passports and making customs clearance more convenient. According to the agreement, ordinary passport holders from both sides can enter each other's country visa-free for tourism, family visits, business, and other private matters, with a stay of no more than 30 days, providing greater convenience for travelers from both countries.

According to statistics from the Shanghai Airport Border Inspection Station, in the six days since the implementation of the visa-free agreement, the number of visa-free personnel entering and leaving China through Shanghai Pudong Airport has exceeded 20,000. According to statistics from the Shenzhen Airport Border Inspection Station, in the 10 days since the mutual visa exemption was implemented, the number of visa-free personnel entering and leaving China through Shenzhen Airport has exceeded 11,100.

Singapore is culturally close to China with relatively few language barriers. The visa-free policy reduces visa costs and procedures, making it easier for tourists to travel. In 2023, the number of Chinese tourists visiting Singapore was close to 2 million. After the implementation of the visa-free policy, the number of tourists visiting Singapore is expected to increase significantly, and Chinese tourists will bring more consumption and investment to Singapore..

Singapore is culturally similar to China with relatively few language barriers. The visa-free policy lowers the cost and procedures of visas, facilitating tourist travel. In 2023, the number of Chinese tourists visiting Singapore was close to 2 million. After the implementation of the visa-free policy, the number of Chinese tourists visiting Singapore will increase significantly, and Chinese tourists will bring more consumption and investment to Singapore.

E-commerce: The State of Singapore's E-commerce Market

rket Singapore's e-commerce market is developing rapidly. The size of Singapore's e-commerce market is expected to reach 5.9 billion USD in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 12%. With the rapid development of new models such as social e-commerce and live streaming e-commerce, and the widespread application of technologies such as personalized recommendation and artificial intelligence, it is expected that the size of Singapore's e-commerce market will reach 10.3 billion USD by 2025. Singapore's e-commerce market has been booming in recent years, and each major e-commerce platform has its own characteristics. Shopee is one of the largest e-commerce platforms in Singapore. It has the main advantages of a wide variety of products and favorable prices. Its business scope covers fashion, electronics, home, maternal and child, food and other multiple fields, providing consumers with a comprehensive shopping experience. Next is Lazada, which is characterized by a complete range of products, fast logistics speed, and an official self-operated platform. It provides various products from fashion, electronics, home, maternal and child to food. With its advantages of rich product variety, genuine product guarantee, and fast logistics speed, Amazon.sg has developed rapidly in the Singapore e-commerce market. Qoo10 is an e-commerce platform that mainly focuses on Korean products. It has a large number of Korean trendy products with relatively low prices. Carousell is the largest personal idle trading platform in Singapore, similar to the domestic "Idle Fish". It provides consumers with a convenient platform for trading second-hand goods and services. In addition, RedMart, as Singapore's leading online fresh supermarket, is characterized by fresh products, timely delivery, and same-day delivery service. Zalora, which focuses on fashion clothing and footwear and has its own brand, also has a place in the Singapore e-commerce market.

Singapore's e-commerce market presents a diversified development pattern. The above seven major e-commerce platforms are the most popular shopping platforms in Singapore. They have different positioning and characteristics and can meet the shopping needs of different consumers. In addition, there are also some small and medium-sized e-commerce platforms that meet the needs of different consumers.

Risks: Various Frauds Faced by Singapore E-commerce and Consumers

Singapore's e-commerce platforms face a variety of risks, from scalping to malicious crawling. These criminals exploit platform vulnerabilities, posing serious threats to platforms and consumers. such as fake reviews and brushing orders, not only disrupt market order but also harm the interests of consumers. Price fraud, delayed delivery, and out-of-stock fraud are also rampant, damaging consumer rights. These risks not only cause huge economic losses to the platform but also affect the platform's reputation and consumer shopping experience.

Scalping risks that rob consumers of welfare benefits. Scalping on e-commerce platforms has become a common phenomenon. Criminals exploit loopholes or preferential policies on e-commerce platforms to register multiple accounts or use software/scripts for automated operations to obtain more discounts and gain improper benefits. Some e-commerce platforms in Singapore have suffered severe scalping attacks in the past. These attacks are often launched by professional scalping groups who exploit platform vulnerabilities to obtain a large number of discounted products, causing huge economic losses to the platform.

Websites scraping risks that steal consumer privacy and transaction data. Website scraping is also a major risk facing e-commerce platforms in Singapore. Criminals use website scraping programs to crawl a large amount of product information from e-commerce platforms and then sell the information to other businesses or use it for illegal profits. In addition, the user databases of some well-known e-commerce platforms have also been stolen by website scraping, leading to the leakage of a large amount of personal information of users.

Fake reviews and brushing orders risks that mislead consumer buying decisions. A large number of merchants in Singapore's e-commerce increase product sales and rankings through fake transactions to deceive consumers. Brushing orders usually involves a large number of fake orders, reviews, and accounts. Merchants use brushing orders to create a false high sales volume and good reviews to attract more consumers. However, once the brushing behavior is discovered by the platform, the merchant will face the risk of punishment and account closure.

Fake advertising risks under orders for goods. False advertising refers to merchants exaggerating or falsely. in advertisements to deceive consumers. False advertising refers to merchants exaggerating or falsely. In advertisements to deceive consumers. False advertising may involve false publicity of product functions, quality, and price, and may even use false pictures and reviews to mislead consumers.

Price fraud that low prices attract high prices. Price fraud refers to merchants attracting consumers with fake low prices and then charging additional fees during the transaction. This type of fraudulent behavior usually attracts consumers to click into the product page with low prices, but finds that the price is much higher than the price tag when checking out, but finds that the price is much higher than the price tag, when checking out, and there may be hidden fees or additional conditions. Merchants lose consumer trust due to price fraud and face risks such as fines.

Fraud that merchants are late in delivery or out of stock. Delayed delivery and out-of-stock fraud refer to merchants delaying delivery or after receiving the order to deceive consumers. This type of fraudulent behavior usually delays the delivery time or claims that the product is out of stock for various reasons to obtain more orders or increase the price.

Anti-fraud: How E-commerce Platforms Can Effectively Defend

The above frauds each have their own characteristics. The scalping criminal group holds a large number of accounts, professional tools are constantly updated, new methods emerge in an endless stream, and the sources are complex, which makes it difficult to identify and prevent risks. Website scraping is becoming more intelligent, and attacks are becoming more covert and complex. If the crawler's attributes cannot be distinguished and the crawler's behavior cannot be judged, then targeted defense cannot be achieved. Brushing orders and fake reviews have formed an industrial chain. In each link of fake transactions, a large number of fake accounts are reserved. There are multiple accounts on the same device, and the characteristics are highly unified, such as the IP address of the same device switching frequently in a short period of time, the browsing and ordering operations are highly unified, and the delivery address are highly unified.

Defend against brushing orders and fake reviews risks. E-commerce platforms need to integrate security SDKs into the App, regularly check the App's running environment, and effectively monitor and intercept risks such as code injection, hook, simulators, cloud phones, proxies, VPNs, root, and jailbreaks. At the same time, H5 confusion protection and terminal security reinforcement can be deployed on the App and website of the e-commerce platform to ensure access security. In addition, it is necessary to encrypt the communication link to prevent the black and gray produced in the business communication transmission link from tampering with the message data and ensure the data of the terminal security detection module.

Defend against scalping risks. E-commerce platforms need to access the business security risk control system in the United States Place an order scenario, transmit the device fingerprint information and user behavior data collected by the terminal to the risk control system, and effectively identify and intercept risks by configuring corresponding security in the risk control system.

Defend against brushing orders, fake reviews, and fake comments risks. E-commerce platforms and regulators are also using advanced technologies such as risk control and big data to prevent, investigate, and prosecute. Dingxiang provides a full-link prevention and control system. from the client to the business side, which can effectively prevent brushing orders and fake reviews, identify and prevent abnormal behaviors such as fake transaction reviews, fake voting, brushing fans, and brushing without affecting the normal user experience, ensuring business security, and promoting the healthy development of e-commerce platforms.