Scammers, recruiters face up to 24 strokes of cane, mules up to 12 strokes under new Bill

Scammers, members and recruiters of scam syndicates are set to face mandatory caning of at least six strokes. This can go up to 24 strokes depending on the severity of the offence.

The Criminal Law (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill, which was introduced in Parliament on Oct 14, also proposes discretionary caning of up to 12 strokes for scam mules, such as those who provide their Singpass credentials, SIM cards, or bank accounts to be used in scams.

This means that the courts can decide during sentencing if caning is needed.

The Bill also makes amendments to several existing laws and introduces other revisions to caning penalties.

During the debate over the Ministry of Home Affairs’ (MHA) budget in March, then Minister of State for Home Affairs Sun Xueling said the Government would consider caning as punishment for some scam-related offences.

Singapore has lost more than $3.4 billion to scams since 2019. Victims here lost a record $1.1 billion in 2024, and have lost more than $600 million from the start of 2025 to the end of August.

MHA said fighting scams continues to be a top national priority, with the number of cases and amounts lost remaining concerns.

The Bill also proposes discretionary caning for other forms of cheating, like traditional fraud.

Currently, those convicted of cheating can be jailed for up to 10 years and fined, but not caned.

Other key amendments in the Bill include those relating to sexual offences, the fatal abuse of vulnerable victims, doxxing of public servants, punishment for youth offenders and obligations on dealers of precious metals.

Caning review

There are currently 161 offences that attract caning, of which 65 mandate it.

MHA said it has reviewed these offences and proposes removing caning as a penalty or making it discretionary for 22 of the offences.

Offences that it proposes removing caning for include blocking carriages and endangering the safety of passengers under the Railways Act, as the offence is no longer of significant public concern.

Caning will also be made discretionary for offences like extortion and carrying offensive weapons in public.

Sexual offences

For sexual offences, the Bill will ensure that consensual sexting between adults is not criminalised.

It also aims to extend enhanced penalties for obscene objects depicting minors below the age of 18, up from the current age of 16.

MHA said in the light of technological advances such as artificial intelligence (AI), the Bill seeks to ensure that the laws will fully cover AI-generated porn of children and non-consenting persons.

Further, the Bill introduces a new offence of non-consensual production of intimate images.

In practice, there is no gap in the law as those who make such images would be caught under existing offences, and the change was for clarity, it said.

David Sun

The Straits Times

Asia News Network