Singapore is launching a dramatic crackdown on online scammers — now facing the same punishment once reserved for offences like rape and drug trafficking.
A new law passed this week mandates at least six strokes of the cane for convicted fraudsters, with the punishment rising to up to 24 strokes in extreme cases, per The Sun.
The move was announced by Senior Minister of State for Home Affairs Sim Ann during a parliamentary hearing, where she warned of the growing scourge of online crime in the city‑state.
Why the Tough Stance?
Singapore’s second‑largest economy in Southeast Asia has lost more than US $2.8 billion to scams between 2020 and 2025, with around 190,000 cases reported in the same period.
Sim Ann told lawmakers that “scams account for 60 per cent of all crimes in Singapore.”
“With this law, we will introduce mandatory caning for scammers,” she said. “Offenders who commit scams, defined as cheating by means of remote communication, will be punished with at least six strokes of the cane.”
She added: “These syndicates mobilise significant resources to conduct and profit from scams, and have the highest rate of culpability.”
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Singapore will come down hard on scammers. Credit: Deejpilot / Getty
From Cane to Crime: What It Entails
The cane is typically used on male offenders under the age of 50, and only after a medical examination.
In more serious cases, physically tied‑down offenders are made to writhe in agony as their backsides are ferociously whipped with a rattan cane — a stark and brutal method inherited from British colonial rule, per Metro.
Historically used for offences like rape, drug trafficking and illegal money‑lending, caning is now being extended to those found guilty of online scams.
“And we will take an equally firm stance against scam syndicates,” Sim Ann emphasised. “Members of and recruiters for scam syndicates will be subject to mandatory caning of at least six strokes if they knew that the organised criminal group was a scam syndicate.”
Enablers & Money Mules Targeted
The new legislation doesn’t just go after the scammers themselves — it also targets those who assist them. “We will therefore introduce discretionary caning for those who facilitate scams,” Sim Ann declared.
Anyone caught helping scammers — including “money mules” who provide bank accounts or SIM cards — can face up to 12 lashes.
“Crippling the supply of scam enablers would significantly increase the difficulty for scammers to successfully conduct or profit from scams in Singapore,” she said.
Importantly, Sim Ann clarified: “Genuine victims who are found to have been deceived into providing a scam enabler would not be affected by the introduction of caning as a punishment.”
Hubs, Hotbeds and Mega Hauls
Singapore’s crackdown comes amid a rising tide of cyber‑scam hubs in the region — often with foreigners lured into scam factories, tricked into online romance or crypto investment frauds, or forced to operate from camps.
In one major case, Singapore police seized more than US $115 million in assets linked to Chen Zhi, a British‑Cambodian tycoon accused of running forced‑labour camps that served as multibillion‑dollar scam centres.
The U.S. Justice Department has indicted him and his company, Prince Holding Group, as fronts for “one of Asia’s transnational criminal organisations.”
Caning, though still lawful in Singapore, is controversial. The practice dates back to British colonial times and remains in limited use — for example in boys’ schools — though rarely as severe.
Human rights organisations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch continue to classify it as torture under international law.