Singapore’s minister of state for home affairs and social and family development Sun Xueling stated on Tuesday ( Mar 4 ) that it will take into account caning scammers in some circumstances in light of the serious harm they cause.
In her speech outlining the Ministry of Home Affairs ‘ ( MHA ) spending plans for the year ahead, MP Tan Wu Meng ( PAP-Jurong ) suggested that she be doing so.
Dr. Tan had previously advocated for strict punishment for swindlers in obscene circumstances.
If you swindle our persons, make off with Singaporeans ‘ life savings, fraud Singaporeans, then we must do everything in our power to tell the scammers a lesson they won’t forget, he said.” We must give a clear message to swindlers, the cartels, and those who abet them.
Ms. Sun agreed that those who facilitate frauds should receive tight and warning sentences.
She noted that prison sentences have typically been imposed for crimes that facilitate schemes, going as high as 19 months in one circumstance, following the recent introduction of new guidelines by a punishment expert panel.
STRESS UP FOR Cash Horses
Additionally, Ms. Sun announced that this year’s efforts to better identify money mule activity will be intensified.
” We have been focusing on them because they are the primary means by which foreign scammers launder their illicit gains and move them out of Singapore,” she said.
She said the Singapore Police Force ( SPF ) will share more information with banks about known mule accounts to improve their fraud analysis and help them find new mule accounts, according to her.
” We will work with the industry to adopt cooling-off measures for some activities that are indicators of wealth mule activity,” she said.
Ms. Sun rebuked people who attempted to turn their SIM cards or bank accounts on to neighbors while “turning a blind eye” to the purposes for which they were used.
” Get specific, please. It is illegal to pass on your SIM cards or bank records to entice schemes, and you could face jail time. According to Ms. Sun,” clinging on does not get you off the hook.”
According to Ms. Sun, over 8, 000 money mules and swindlers were investigated last year as part of 25 island-wide SPF anti-scam protection operations.
Over 660 of them have been charged in court and are scheduled to spend time behind bars if found guilty, she said.
A money mule received RM1, 000 ( US$ 224 ) for accessing his internet banking account in a case that was concluded without taking “reasonable steps to ascertain the purpose of this arrangement,” according to Ms. Sun.
More than S$ 160 000 ( US$ 188, 989 ) of criminal revenues were afterwards deposited in the bank accounts.  ,
According to Ms. Sun,” The wealth horse was found guilty and given a six-month prison sentence.”
Ms. Sun reaffirmed in her discourse that schemes are a major issue worldwide and that Singapore has been fighting against for years.
Despite efforts to protect against malware in banking apps and stop calls from known scam numbers, scams also totaled S$ 1.1 billion in 2013, according to her.
According to Ms. Sun, this was a 70 % increase over the previous month.
” The state is rightly concerned about this, and many people are.” She said,” We must and will redouble our efforts in this battle against schemes.”