Singapore will impose mandatory caning for online scammers, a minister announced on Tuesday, as the city-state intensifies its crackdown on scam syndicates after suffering record-high financial losses.
Sim Ann, Singapore’s Senior Minister of State for Home Affairs, told parliament that Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy had lost more than US$2.8 billion to scams between 2020 and the first half of 2025, with around 190,000 cases reported during that period.
“We will introduce mandatory caning for scammers,” Sim said as lawmakers debated amendments to Singapore’s criminal code.
“Offenders who commit scams, defined as cheating primarily through remote communication, will face at least six strokes of the cane,” she explained.
Sim added that members of organised scam syndicates, as well as those who recruit others into such operations, would also face a minimum of six strokes.
Those assisting scammers — including “money mules” who provide their bank accounts or SIM cards — could receive up to 12 strokes, according to the proposed legislation.
Singapore has in recent years stepped up its anti-scam measures through public education, a national hotline, and the ScamShield app, which helps users detect fraudulent calls, websites, and messages.
Former Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong previously revealed he had personally fallen victim to an online shopping scam, underscoring how pervasive the issue has become.
Authorities have also targeted international scam networks. Last week, Singapore police seized over US$115 million in assets linked to British-Cambodian tycoon Chen Zhi, accused of operating forced labour camps in Cambodia that ran large-scale online fraud schemes.
The move followed an indictment by the US Justice Department against Chen, 37, founder of Prince Holding Group, which Washington described as a front for “one of Asia’s largest transnational criminal organisations.”