Singapore Considers Caning as Scams Jump 70%

How bad has Singapore’s scamming problem gotten? Authorities are considering corporal punishment for offenders.

“We believe in caning as a strong deterrent,” Loretta Yuen, chair of the fraud committee at the Association of Banks in Singapore, said in an interview with the Financial Times (FT) Sunday (May 26). “It’s a deterrent, but there is also a sense of revenge to it.”

In the last two years, that report said, people in Singapore have been among the biggest scam victims on the planet. In 2023, they lost the most money of any nation, at $4,031 each. That figure dropped last year, though the number of scams reported to police climbed 10%.

Singaporeans lost a total of $1.1 billion (in the nation’s currency) last year, a 70% increase per law enforcement estimates. However, the true figure could be higher, according to the Global Anti-Scam Alliance, which calculates that more than two-thirds of Singaporean scam victims did not report their experience.

While this is only a fraction of the $1 trillion scammers take in each year, Singaporeans — who tend to be rich, digitally advanced and willing to comply with requests — are especially vulnerable, the report said.

“They are rich and naive,” an asset recovery professional told the FT.

Research by PYMNTS Intelligence shows that scams became the leading form of fraud last year, surpassing digital payment fraud. The share of scam-related fraud rose by 56%, and financial losses from scams jumped 121%, the research found.

“Scams now account for 23% of all fraudulent transactions, with relationship/trust and product/service scams responsible for most losses,” PYMNTS wrote in December. “These scams manipulate individuals into authorizing fraudulent transactions, often using deceptive tactics. Additionally, fraud involving compromised credentials, where individuals are tricked into revealing account details, is also on the rise.”

More recently, PYMNTS examined the use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) to both carry out and prevent scams.

“Today’s AI-driven attacks aren’t limited to phish-y emails. Fraudsters now employ voice cloning and deepfake videos to impersonate executives, tricking employees into authorizing large fund transfers,” that report said.

“The accessibility of generative AI tools means that even low-level scammers can produce high-quality forgeries, blurring the lines between genuine and fake communications.”

To deal with this growing threat, companies are embracing AI-driven solutions, such as advanced fraud detection systems that employ machine learning to detect anomalies in transaction patterns, flagging suspicious activities in real time.

“These systems can adapt to evolving fraud tactics, offering a proactive defense mechanism,” PYMNTS wrote.