World Smartest Nation Singapore(?) Considers Caning as Scams Jump 70%
BY
PYMNTSMAY 26, 2025
https://www.pymnts.com/news/security-and-risk/2025/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.