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Singapore is making an unprecedented step towards targeting online scammers, who will now face similar punishments for rape and drug trafficking.
On Tuesday, the country’s parliament passed a new law that introduced caning as a penalty for scammers.
Offenders will now receive at least six strokes of the cane – but the mandatory punishment could see convicted fraudsters be handed up to 24 strokes in extreme cases.
In Singapore, corporal punishment is usually reserved for serious offences – such as rape, drug trafficking and illegal moneylending.
But it will only apply to male offenders under the age of 50. Convicted scammers will be tied down as someone canes their backside.
The new punishment is meant to act as a deterrent as the number of cases has risen over the past five years.
According to Sim Ann, Singapore’s senior minister of state for home affairs, around 190,000 cases have been reported between 2020 and 2025. She said scams account for 60% of all crimes in Singapore.
Ms Ann said: ‘We will introduce mandatory caning for scammers. Offenders who commit scams defined as cheating mainly by means of remote communication will be punished with at least six strokes of the cane.
‘We will take an equally firm stance against scam syndicates. These syndicates mobilise significant resources to conduct and profit from scams and have the highest level of culpability.
‘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.’
What offences are punishable by caning in Singapore?
Caning already exists as a form of punishment for committing crimes in Singapore.
In addition to rape and drug trafficking offences, criminals can be handed corporal punishment for rioting, vandalism, weapons offences and robbery, according to Legal Advice Singapore.
Criminals can be sentenced to caning for immigration offences such as overstaying their visa or entering the country without one and knowingly employing illegal immigrants.
Other crimes include extortion, manslaughter, murder (where the sentence is not the death penalty), abduction and knowlingly receiving ransom.
Ms Ann added: ‘Crippling the supply of scam enablers would significantly increase the difficulty for scammers to successfully conduct or profit from scams in Singapore.
‘We will therefore introduce discretionary caning for those who facilitate scams.’
She said that ‘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’.
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