Public Consultation on Protection From Scams Bill

1. The Ministry of Home Affairs (“MHA”) will be introducing the Protection from Scams Bill (“the Bill”) in the coming months. We invite the public to provide feedback on the proposed Bill, which seeks to empower the Police to issue Restriction Orders (RO) to banks to temporarily restrict the banking transactions of targets of ongoing scams who refuse to believe that they are being scammed.

Background

2. Since 2022, banks have put in place a suite of safeguards to protect their customers from scams. These include the Kill-Switch, which allows customers to freeze their bank accounts if they suspect that their accounts are compromised, and Money Lock, where customers can set aside a sum of monies that cannot be transferred via online means.

3. However, despite the introduction of these safeguards and extensive efforts to educate the public on how to avoid falling victim to scams, the number of scam cases involving the voluntary transfer of monies by the victim to the scammer (“self-effected transfers”) remains high. In the first half of 2024, 86% of reported scams were the result of self-effected transfers. The scammers did not gain direct control of the victims’ accounts, but manipulated them into transferring their monies to the scammers.

4. In some of these cases, the victims were warned by the Police, bank or family that they were being scammed, but still refused to believe that this was happening. These included victims of internet love scams and government officials impersonation scams. Currently, the Police have no powers to stop them from transferring their monies to the scammers if they insist on doing so.

Proposed Protection from Scams Bill

5. The proposed Bill seeks to better protect targets of ongoing scams by empowering the Police to issue Restriction Orders (RO) to banks to restrict the banking transactions of an individual, if there is reason to believe that he will make money transfers to the scammer. The proposed scope of the RO is listed below.

ROs Will Only Be Issued for Scams Conducted Remotely

6. The Police will only issue ROs for scams that are conducted solely via digital or telecommunication channels (i.e., calls, SMSes, or online communications), where there have not been any in-person interactions.

7. Traditional cheating cases involving in-person interactions will not be covered (e.g., transfers to an errant renovation contractor, or to a family member or friend). For such cases, it is often unclear at the outset whether a criminal offence is disclosed, and immediate Police intervention may not be possible or required. However, members of the public may still lodge a Police report if they encounter such cases.

ROs Will Stop Money Transfers and Suspend Credit Facilities

8. MHA is mindful of the need to strike a balance between protecting the public from scams, and not unduly inconveniencing the individual beyond what is necessary to protect him, and maintaining a sense of personal responsibility and choice. Our proposed approach takes this into consideration.

9. ROs will cover the following banking facilities:

(a) Money transfers (including online banking, mobile banking, and in person over-the-counter) out of the victim’s bank accounts and into other accounts, will be suspended. We will introduce a mechanism for these individuals to apply to the Police to have access to their monies for legitimate purposes (e.g. sustain daily living, pay bills).

(b) All credit facilities (credit card transactions, access to personal loan facilities) will be suspended. This guards against the risk of scammers deceiving victims into applying for credit lines or loans on the scammers’ behalf.

(c) If an individual has been assessed to warrant a RO, the Police will issue the RO to all the seven Domestic Systematically Important Banks (D-SIBs) in Singapore. ¹ This is in case the individual has banking accounts with more than one bank.

Validity of ROs

10. ROs will be issued for a period of 28 days in the first instance. This gives the Police time to take further measures (e.g., continue engaging the individual and the next-of-kin, gather additional evidence to convince the individual, convince the individual to adopt the necessary banking safeguards) to stop the ongoing scam.

11. At the end of the 28-day period, if the Police assess that the individual is still at risk of being scammed, they will renew the RO for up to 28 days at a time.

ROs Will Only Be Issued as a Last Resort

12. ROs will only be issued if the Police have reason to believe that the individual is being targeted by a scammer and may make transfers to the scammer within the foreseeable future, and after other options to convince the victim have been exhausted and have failed.

Appeal Mechanism

13. Individuals will be allowed to appeal to the Minister for Home Affairs against the Police’s decision to issue the RO. The decision of the Minister for Home Affairs is final.

Public Consultation

14. We welcome your views on the above proposal, along with any other suggestions you may have on the Bill. More details on our proposal can be found on this URL:

https://go.gov.sg/feedbackscamsbill

and on the REACH website.

15. Please submit your feedback to us by 30 September 2024 via email to

scams_feedback@mha.gov.sg

or by mail to the address below.

Ministry of Home Affairs

New Phoenix Park

28 Irrawaddy Road

Singapore 329560

Re: Public Consultation on the Protection from Scams Bill

16. Your feedback is important to us. All views and comments received will be considered.

[1] The seven D-SIBs are: (a) DBS Bank, (b) Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation, (c) United Overseas Bank, (d) Citibank, (e) Malayan Banking Berhad, (f) Standard Chartered Bank, and (g) Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation.