In total, victims in Singapore have lost more than $3.4 billion to scams since 2019. — The Straits Times/ANN Photo

SINGAPORE — The Government will consider caning as punishment for some scam-related offences, given the serious harm they cause and with scam losses here hitting a record high in 2024.

Minister of State for Home Affairs Sun Xueling announced this on Tuesday in her speech during the debate over the Ministry of Home Affairs’ (MHA) budget.

She was responding to Dr Tan Wu Meng (Jurong GRC), who asked if caning should be legislated for serious scam-related offences.

Noting that significant jail terms have been recommended for these offences, Sun added: “We will consider Dr Tan’s suggestion for caning to be prescribed for certain scam-related offences, recognising the serious harm they can cause.”

During the debate on Monday, Dr Tan said one of his Clementi residents had been scammed of her life savings. She now faces bankruptcy and could lose her job.

Noting that her money was channelled overseas through a local bank account, he asked how many money mules or scam runners actually get caught.

He called upon MHA to allow caning for scam offences by drawing a parallel to the Moneylenders Act.

If someone’s bank account is used to assist unlicensed moneylenders, he faces a fine of between $30,000 and $300,000, a maximum jail time of four years, and up to six strokes of the cane.

Dr Tan said: “Today, if a loan shark runner handles $10,000 of cash taken from a victim, they can be caned.

“But a scammer or scam runner, if they make off with $100,000 of someone’s life savings from a scam victim, they can’t be caned.”

He asked if Singapore was too soft on scammers and said a clear message must be sent to them.

Dr Tan added: “If you mess with our people, make off with the life savings of Singaporeans, scam Singaporeans, we must do everything in our power to teach the scammers a lesson they won’t forget.”

Scam victims in Singapore lost a record $1.1 billion in 2024, according to annual scam figures released by the police on February 25. This is the first time scam losses crossed the $1 billion mark in a year.

In total, victims in Singapore have lost more than $3.4 billion to scams since 2019.

On Aug 21, 2024, the Sentencing Advisory Panel proposed that money mules who assist scammers should be jailed for at least six months, a stricter punishment than the current sentence of fine, jail or both.

Sun said that since the guidelines were published, the courts have generally imposed jail terms for such offences.

The authorities have also curbed the abuse of local SIM cards, after criminal syndicates used them to get around measures to block overseas scam calls and SMSes.

New laws from January 1 make it illegal to register a SIM card and sell it for gain, possess a large number of unregistered SIM cards for no legitimate reason, and buy or sell SIM cards registered in another person’s particulars.

If the cards are used in a crime, offenders can be jailed for up to three years, fined up to $10,000, or both.

Sun said: “These ‘SIM-card mules’ are not just abetting a crime. They are helping to destroy lives.”

She added that in 2025, MHA will expand its efforts against money mule activities.

For example, the police will share more information with banks about known money mule accounts, to enable banks to uncover other accounts.

As for online platforms, Sun said MHA is especially concerned about Telegram as its anonymity function is exploited by scammers and other criminals.

The number of reported scams on Telegram almost doubled in 2024.

Sun added: “We urge Telegram to take the online safety of its users seriously, and adopt stronger user verification measures to prevent scammers from creating scam accounts.”

MHA may use laws to ensure Telegram complies, she said.

Sun added that Singapore is not the only country that faces issues working with Telegram.

Apart from scams, drugs and non-consensual sexual content have been proliferating through the platform.

She said: “If necessary, we will consider very serious actions against Telegram to ensure they do not harm local citizens further.”

New codes of practice – the Online Communication Code and E-Commerce Code – introduced in June 2024 require all social media and e-commerce platforms to implement measures to proactively prevent and disrupt scams.

During the Tuesday debate, Ms Mariam Jaafar (Sembawang GRC) said Facebook recently declined to take down a page pretending to be hers as it purportedly did not violate community standards.

She added: “Residents have told me they have received friend requests and messages from my Facebook page asking for their e-mail addresses and other personal details, which I find alarming.”

Jaafar asked how cooperative the platforms have been in combating scams.

Sun replied that Carousell and Meta, which owns Facebook, have been responsive to the new codes, such as implementing enhanced verification against government-issued records for risky sellers and advertisers on their platforms.

They saw encouraging results. Over six months in 2024, e-commerce scams dropped by about 10 per cent on Carousell and by about 60 per cent on Facebook Marketplace.

In the fight against scams, Sun said, Singapore is up against highly organised and sophisticated criminal networks, which are well resourced, adept at using technology and constantly evolve their tactics.

“The Government will continue to respond aggressively to this challenge,” she added. — The Straits Times/ANN