Opaque ‘consulting firm’ website trying to hire former Singapore foreign ministry personnel

The supposedly Singapore-headquartered Great Vision entity also falsely claims that its “managing partner” is a former Singapore diplomat.

SINGAPORE: At first glance, Dr Jade Chan’s resume on the website of the Great Vision consultancy firm looks impeccable.

The self-professed former Singapore diplomat supposedly served in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ diplomatic missions in Jakarta, Hanoi and Brussels, and was an adviser at the ASEAN Secretariat. She holds a PhD in international relations from the London School of Economics and has dealt with weighty matters like the South China Sea dialogues and bilateral trade negotiations as part of her “20 years of experience in international diplomacy and strategic analysis”.

But Dr Chan’s claims about being a Singapore diplomat are fabricated. Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) said in response to queries from CNA that Dr Chan, billed as one of Great Vision’s key leaders, had never worked at the ministry.

CNA has contacted the supposedly Singapore-headquartered Great Vision firm, which does not list an address or phone number, through an email provided on its website (greatvisionconsulting.com). The email was, however, returned undelivered after repeated failed attempts to connect to the domain’s server.

CNA has also reached out to LSE and the ASEAN Secretariat to verify their associations with “Dr Chan”. Online checks failed to identify any public profile on LinkedIn or social media that matched her credentials as stated by Great Vision.

The fraudulent bio of “Dr Chan” was not the only eyebrow-raising entry on the website.

Nestled among other unverifiable and unsubstantiated claims was a job listing for a senior consultant in political and geopolitical risk, “preferably with prior roles in Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ASEAN Secretariat, EU institutions, or leading international think-tanks.”

CNA has been investigating close to 10 such suspicious websites in recent weeks, and this was the first such instance where the operator explicitly targeted candidates with prior experience in a Singaporean government agency.

Apart from trying to hire former Singaporean diplomats, Great Vision also targeted candidates who have worked at think-tanks in Singapore.

In its job listing for an intelligence and research analyst, Great Vision wrote that "prior experience at Singapore-based think-tanks (e.g. RSIS) or regional research institutions is highly desirable”. Candidates were asked to send in “relevant work samples” as part of their application.

CNA and other media outlets have recently reported on suspicious think-tanks and consultancies which tried to use Singapore as generic cover in their attempts to hire former American officials. For instance, these suspicious outfits would cite fake local addresses or claim their staff worked or studied in Singapore.

Where outfits like Great Vision differ is the lengths to which they have gone to manufacture detailed yet non-existent ties with institutions in Singapore.

Take the so-called Global Asia Think Tank, which claimed on its website (globalasiatt.com) that it was supported by MFA and working with both the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKYSPP) in the National University of Singapore, and the Nanyang Technological University’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS).

MFA told CNA it “does not and has not supported” Global Asia. Referring to the Global Asia and Great Vision claims as “misrepresentations”, the ministry said it has contacted the websites to remove the false references to MFA.

“MFA will work with the relevant agencies to take further action, if these requests are not complied with,” it added.

An LKYSPP spokesperson said the claims on the Global Asia website were false. The school “has no relationship” with the entity and has “not authorised” the use of its name in connection with the entity or its activities, she added. A RSIS representative also confirmed to CNA that the think-tank has “no knowledge” of Global Asia.

Global Asia also claimed to have conducted an in-person seminar at LKYSPP on Jun 18. Checks on the school’s calendar showed that no such event took place.

Additional checks by CNA uncovered that the photo Global Asia used on its website as “evidence” of the LKYSPP event was created using one of OpenAI’s image generation models and on Jun 26, eight days after the supposed event.

CNA’s latest findings come in the wake of its earlier reporting on a Singapore-registered consulting firm with fake staff and which attempted to recruit an American ex-government employee. Researchers and analysts have also uncovered a clutch of similar organisations since the middle of 2025, bringing the total documented number of such Singapore-linked, falsehood-bearing entities to at least 16.

FABRICATED, UNAUTHORISED EXPERTS

Of nine websites reviewed by CNA, only Great Vision stated an explicit preference for job applicants with prior experience in Singapore institutions.

Recruitment efforts by the other websites were not aimed at candidates from a specific country, and merely courted those with experience in policy, market, government, defence or intelligence sectors.

Four websites – including Great Vision and Global Asia – manufactured links to Singapore institutions, whether in terms of support, collaboration or personnel affiliation.

More than half of the websites also tried to create an impression of having multinational staff. Checks by CNA suggested that many of the staff biographies and photos were either generated by AI or altered versions belonging to real academics.

One example was Afforesight (afforesight.com), which described itself as an independent think-tank headquartered in Singapore.

Dr Zhao Litao, a real senior research fellow at the National University of Singapore’s East Asian Institute, was listed on Afforesight’s website as one of their experts without his knowledge. “I have never heard of this organisation and have not been involved in any of its activities,” Dr Zhao told CNA. “I have not authorised it to list me as a member of its ‘team of experts’ or to use my name, photograph or biography.”

CNA has also contacted the East Asian Institute for comment.

Among 12 other experts listed by Afforesight was “Rachel Turner”, who supposedly served as the US ambassador to Norway from 2014 to 2017 and to Denmark from 2010 to 2013. However, official US State Department records identified different US ambassadors for those periods.

On its website, Afforesight listed its headquarters in Singapore as 8 Biomedical Grove, #04-02/03. A visit to the location found that the entire floor was taken up by a research facility operated by a pharmaceutical firm. There were no signs of any entity named Afforesight, including on the building directory.

TARGETING THOSE WITH “PRIVILEGED KNOWLEDGE”

Mr Muhammad Faizal Bin Abdul Rahman, a research fellow with RSIS’ regional security architecture programme, said the tactic of using personas like those of “Dr Chan” could create an image of credibility and competence, which could help attract candidates for jobs.

Professor Simon Chesterman, senior director of AI governance at AI Singapore, said the targeting of former MFA staff indicated an interest in “people who may have had privileged knowledge, networks or simply a better understanding of how government works”.

“That does not establish who is behind the site or what their intentions are, but it is precisely the kind of targeting that warrants closer scrutiny,” he added.

CNA has not found evidence that all the websites being investigated are commonly controlled or run by one operator.

Mr Faizal said that despite the lack of hard evidence linking the websites, “it cannot be ruled out that the same or connected actors are behind them, given the similarities in tactics”.

“They may be aware that their tactics are being watched. Rather than relying on just one website that may be flagged, they may flood the internet with multiple websites, hoping one or two will get a hit,” he suggested.

Experts have noted that generative AI has made such information operations considerably easier to replicate at scale, by lowering the cost of creating plausible and convincing content.

Asked about the apparent targeting of Singapore, Mr Faizal of RSIS said foreign powers “may use covert means, disguised as innocuous approaches, to gather strategic intelligence on how Singapore’s foreign policy will adapt to the changing strategic environment and whether there are levers they can use to their advantage”.

Context and timing are key as well, given Singapore will chair the ASEAN bloc in 2027. “Foreign powers will want to anticipate Singapore’s strategy for driving multilateral cooperation to advance regional interests,” noted Mr Faizal, who studies influence operations, technology, geopolitics and cyber issues among others.

Most of the domains, or web addresses, of the nine suspicious sites were recently registered.

Global Asia Think Tank was the newest - registered on Jun 24 - while the Asia Center for Strategic and Financial Studies has had its domain since Jul 30, 2024. The latter however still has an active job advertisement for a policy or market researcher.

“The concern is … not only the possibility of extracting information from particular individuals,” said Prof Chesterman, whose research also extends to security and intelligence services.

“There is also a wider risk of exploiting the reputation of Singapore institutions, undermining trust in legitimate organisations, and making researchers, officials and former officials more wary of otherwise genuine professional engagement.”

Additional reporting by Sophie Chew, Sophia Tay and Renald Loh