Singapore's government will consider caning as punishment for some scam-related offences, State for Home Affairs Minister 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 (US$817 million) in 2024, with the number of cases rising nearly 11% to 51,501 from the previous year, according to police data.
Singapore uses corporal punishment for a range of crimes, including extortion, serious sexual offences and vandalism.
