A total of 280 people, including a 15-year-old, are being investigated by the police for their alleged involvement in scams as scammers or money mules, following a two-week operation conducted between Sept 24 and Oct 7.
The latest operation comes just weeks after an earlier two-week operation from Sept 10 to 23.
It involved officers from the police’s Cyber Command and the seven police land divisions.
Police said in a news release on Thursday (Oct 8) that the 189 men and 91 women being investigated are aged between 15 and 81.
They are believed to be involved in more than 633 scam cases comprising mainly e-commerce scams, phishing scams, job scams, government official impersonation scams, investment scams and lucky draw scams, with victims reportedly losing about $4.4 million.
They are also being investigated for various alleged offences including cheating, money laundering, or providing payment services without a licence.
MHA ‘particularly concerned’ over youths’ involvement in scams
MHA ‘particularly concerned’ about youths’ involvement in scams
In Parliament on Oct 6, Senior Minister K Shanmugam said the Ministry of Home Affairs is “particularly concerned” that many young people are getting involved in scam-related offences, with over 1,000 youths investigated in connection with scam reports.
Reiterating Singapore’s approach in considering penalties to be imposed for an offence, Shanmugam said that there are four aspects: deterrence, prevention, retribution and rehabilitation.
In the context of scams, the senior minister said that deterrence, both to prevent offenders from reoffending and to discourage would-be perpetrators, is the most important principle.
“That is because rehabilitation of the individual offender has to be balanced against the need to deter others from facilitating scams, and thereby prevent many more people from becoming victims,” said Shanmugam, who is also Coordinating Minister for National Security and Minister for Home Affairs.
On young offenders, the senior minister stated that Singapore cannot treat them more leniently simply because of their age.
“Scam syndicates will have every incentive to recruit more young people as mules. We cannot allow this to happen.”
Shanmugam added that the approach in recent rounds of legislative amendments targeting scam-related offences has been to send a strong message that every offender, regardless of age, will be dealt with seriously.
Penalties
If found guilty of cheating, an individual may face a jail term of up to 10 years and a fine, while those convicted of money laundering may be jailed for up to 10 years and fined up to $500,000.
Carrying on a business to provide any type of payment service without a licence may result in a fine of up to $125,000, a jail term for up to three years, or both.
Additionally, scammers as well as members or recruiters of scam syndicates will face mandatory caning of at least six strokes and up to 24 strokes, as part of amendments introduced by the Ministry of Home Affairs which came into effect on Dec 30, 2025.
Scam mules who enable scammers by laundering scam proceeds, providing SIM cards and SingPass credentials may face up to 12 strokes of the cane.
The police reiterated that those found linked to such crimes will be held accountable, and individuals involved in mule-related offences may face restrictions to their banking services and mobile line subscriptions to prevent further facilitation of scams.
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