By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Singapore’s Senior Minister of State for Home Affairs, Sim Ann on Tuesday told parliament that plans are ongoing to initiate a punishment system that earns online scammers at least six strokes with a cane, as the city-state intensifies efforts on syndicates following record-high losses linked to scam.
The Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy lost more than $2.8 billion through scams from 2020 up to the first half of 2025, the Minister told the parliament.
She said about 190,000 cases of scamming had been reported over that time period.
“We will introduce mandatory caning for scammers,” Sim said as an amendment to Singapore’s criminal code was presented for a second reading before the parliament.
“Offenders who commit scams, defined as cheating mainly by means of remote communication, will be punished with at least six strokes of the cane,” the minister said.
Singapore is also launching a cracking down on scam syndicates. “These syndicates mobilise significant resources to conduct and profit from scams, and have the highest level of culpability,” Sim said.
Members of scam syndicates and recruiters “will be subject to mandatory caning of at least six strokes”, she added.
According to the Bill, those who help scammers, including so-called “money mules” who offer bank accounts or SIM cards, could face caning of up to 12 lashes.
Singapore police said on Friday they had seized more than $115 million in assets tied to Chen Zhi, a British-Cambodian tycoon accused of running forced labour camps in Cambodia used as multi-billion dollar scam centres.
The seizure came after the US Justice Department earlier this month unsealed an indictment against Chen, 37, founder of Prince Holding Group, a multinational conglomerate that Washington said served as a front for “one of Asia’s largest transnational criminal organisations”.
