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

With billions lost to scams in Singapore in recent years, the country plans to cane scammers and mules under newly proposed laws to tackle the scourge.

Scammers, and 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.

And because sexual content can now be transmitted to the masses more quickly, the Bill proposes a new offence.

It will target those who set up or manage online locations, like group chats and websites, to allow such large-scale circulation.

It also proposes enhancing penalties for the circulation of obscene objects to 10 or more persons, which is considered large-scale circulation.

In the case of the SG Nasi Lemak Telegram chat group that was created in November 2018, obscene photos and videos of Singaporean women were shared with around 44,000 members.

Four men were dealt with over the group, including two members who were placed on probation.

The two others were administrators. One was sentenced to mandatory treatment for a year, while the other was jailed for nine weeks and fined $26,000.

MHA said the current penalties for the offence relating to obscene objects under the Penal Code are inadequate to deal with such egregious cases.

Those convicted under the offence currently face a maximum of three months' jail and a fine, or two years' jail and a fine if the content depicts a minor under 16.

Under the newly proposed laws, those convicted of large-scale electronic circulation of obscene material can be jailed for up to two years and fined.

The maximum jail term will be doubled to four years if the obscene material depicts anyone below 18.

Those who set up or manage the online channels by which obscene material is circulated on a large scale can be jailed for up to five years and fined.

The maximum jail term will be increased to seven years if such material depicts anyone below 18.

Another proposed change relates to sexual grooming offences under the Penal Code, which currently do not apply if the offender and victim intend to meet overseas to carry out the sexual act.

The changes to the law will mean that if the offender and victim meet or plan to meet overseas to engage in an illicit sex act, and either of them has travelled from Singapore, the offender can be liable for sexual grooming.

The extraterritorial reach for the sexual grooming offence is similar to that for drug offences, in which offenders are treated as though the offence had been committed in Singapore.

Maximum jail terms for sexual grooming offences will also be increased to seven years' jail if the victim is under 14, from the current four years.

If the victim is aged 14 to 17, the Bill proposes an increase to a maximum of five years' jail, from the current three.

This will only apply to victims aged 16 and 17 if there was an exploitative relationship.

Other changes

Other proposed amendments include increasing the jail term for the fatal abuse of vulnerable victims to life imprisonment or up to 30 years. The current maximum is 20 years' jail.

MHA also wants to protect public servants from doxxing and proposes amending the law to remove the need to prove that he or she suffered harassment, so long as the offender had the intention to harass.

It further proposes criminalising the doxxing of a public servant when accompanied by a falsehood, with offenders to be jailed for up to three years and fined up to $10,000.

For older youth offenders aged 16 and 17, the Bill will ensure that they can be given deterrent sentences such as imprisonment, reformative training and caning when their cases are handled in the State Courts or High Court instead of the Youth Courts.

Regulatory requirements for workers and dealers in precious metals will be updated under the Bill, increasing the waiting time from three days to five days before these individuals can melt, alter or deface such goods or articles.

MHA said this will better meet law enforcement needs while managing the compliance burden on the industry.

It added that the registration requirements for such dealers under the Miscellaneous Offences (Public Order and Nuisance) Act are obsolete, and will be repealed if the Bill is passed.

MHA said the Government regularly reviews and updates the criminal laws to ensure they remain effective and fair, while being responsive to emerging challenges.

It said: "We are determined to maintain a safe and secure Singapore, where people have confidence in our criminal justice system, and where criminals have no refuge and are deterred from committing crime."