Singapore empowers police to freeze bank accounts in scam crackdown

Singapore passed a new law on Tuesday allowing police to freeze bank accounts of scam victims as a “last resort” measure to prevent further losses.

The law empowers police to issue restriction orders to banks if they assess that it is necessary to protect a victim who is likely to make bank transfers to a scammer, withdraw money and give it to a scammer, or apply for draw-down from a credit facility to benefit a fraudster.

The wealthy Asian financial hub has been a major target of scammers, with 26,587 cases recorded in the first half of 2024 accounting for S$385.6 million (US$283.34 million) in losses, according to police statistics. Scam victims lost S$651.8 million in 2023, with a record loss of S$660.7 million in 2022.

Police will consider factors such as whether the victim has transferred money to the scammer and is still communicating with the scammer.

These curb orders last for 30 days and police can renew the restriction up to five times or lift the order.

The orders will by default be issued to Singapore’s seven major retail banks: OCBC, DBS, UOB, Maybank, Standard Chartered, Citibank and HSBC. Other banks can also be included.