Singapore Mulls Caning as Punishment for Severe Scam Offenses

Singapore’s government will consider caning as punishment for some scam-related offenses, Minister of State for Home Affairs Sun Xueling said during a parliamentary debate Tuesday.

The Southeast Asian city-state has doubled down on legislation to combat a spike in scam and cybercrime cases in recent years. Singapore’s parliament passed a bill in January allowing the police to control the bank accounts of potential targets, aiming to protect them from scams conducted remotely.

Scam victims in Singapore lost a record S$1.1 billion ($817 million) in 2024, with the number of cases rising nearly 11% to 51,501 from the previous year, according ...