SINGAPORE, March 4 (Bernama) -- The Singapore government will consider caning as a punishment for certain scam-related offences, recognising the serious harm they cause, Minister of State for Home Affairs Sun Xueling told Parliament on Tuesday.
She was responding to a Member of Parliament, who asked whether caning should be legislated for serious scam-related offences during the debate on the Home Affairs Ministry (MHA) budget, The Straits Times (ST) reported.
Jurong GRC MP Dr Tan Wu Meng had called upon the MHA to allow caning for scam offences.
At least S$1.1 billion (S$1 = RM3.30) was lost to scams in Singapore in 2024 – an increase of 70.6 per cent compared to the previous year.
The Singapore Police Force (SPF) reported that the total number of scam cases also increased by 10.6 per cent to 51,501 cases in 2024, which accounted for 92.3 per cent of cybercrimes reported last year.
The amount lost to scams and the number of cases are the highest in Singapore for a single year, at least since 2020.
-- BERNAMA
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