Singapore passes law to freeze scam victims’ assets
Law enforcement agencies can block or impose restrictions on the bank accounts of scam victims. The law provides for halting transactions, ATM use and credit. The restriction order is limited to "a maximum of 30 days" extendable up to five times.
Singapore (AsiaNews) – The Singaporean Parliament today passed a new law authorising police to freeze or impose restrictions on the bank accounts of potential victims of online scams.
The legislation, “Protection from Scams Bill”, reflects a " grave concern", expressed by the Minister of State for Home Affairs and for Social and Family Development Sun Xueling, for a problem that affects the entire Asian continent.
“This Bill allows the police to act decisively and close a gap in our arsenal against scammers,” the minister said after she tabled it for the second reading.
Specific officers, including those from the police and Commercial Affairs Department, will be able to issue restriction orders to banks if there is reasonable belief that account holders will be making transfers to scammers, including money transfers, ATM use, and all credit facilities, although individuals will still have access to their money for everyday expenses.
“The intent is to buy the police more time to engage and convince the individual that he is being scammed, including through enlisting the help of his family members,” Ms Sun told the House.
The minister went on to say that the restriction orders will affect the seven Domestic Systemically Important Banks (DSIBs) – DBS, OCBC, UOB, Citibank, HSBC, Maybank, and Standard Chartered Bank – representing most consumer bank accounts in Singapore.
Orders can also be issued to non-DSIB banks if there is a reasonable reason to believe that victims are making transfers to fraudsters.
Sun said the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) was “mindful of the need to strike a balance between protecting an individual from further harm and not unduly inconveniencing him”.
Several safeguards are envisaged, such as requiring that restriction orders be issued only as a “last resort" if all other efforts "have failed". The law limits the duration of a restriction order to a maximum of 30 days, and each order can be extended up to five times.
Preliminary indicators show that the amount of fraud cases and losses increased by 10 per cent and 40 per cent respectively in 2024 over the previous year.
These scams include impersonating government officials, phoney investment proposals and internet love stories, accounting for 86 per cent of all scam reports and 94 per cent of losses from January to September last year.
“In some cases, the police have observed that the victims were so taken in by the scammers’ deceit that they refused to believe that they were being scammed,” the minister explained.
At present, law enforcement and banks have no legal power to prevent transactions.
“The victim would continue to lose more money to the scammers [. . .]. In some of these cases, the victims have appealed to the government for financial assistance,” Ms Sun said. This is why, “In such situations, the authorities should have powers to intervene decisively.”
Finally, the government specifies that while the bill alone "will not significantly dent the total number of scams,” it is one of the many methods deployed to combat scams.
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05/10/2020 11:24
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