Public Consultation on Protection from Scams Bill

Ministry of Home Affairs, Policy Development Division

Consultation Period: 30 Aug 2024 - 30 Sep 2024

Status: Closed

Detailed Description

1. The Ministry of Home Affairs (“MHA”) is seeking feedback on the proposed Protection from Scams Bill (“the 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 the victims from transferring their monies to the scammers if they insist on doing so.

Proposed Scope of Restriction Orders

5. The proposed Bill seeks to protect targets of ongoing scams by empowering the Police to issue Restriction Orders (RO) to banks to restrict the banking transactions of the individual, if there is reasonable belief that he will make money transfers to the scammer. The intent is to protect the individual from losing his money to scammers. 

6. The decision to issue a RO will be made by the Police, based on an assessment of the facts and circumstances of each case. These may include the strength of evidence that the individual is being targeted by a scammer, an assessment of the imminence of such a scam, the individual’s response to warnings of such a scam, and whether the individual has been scammed in the past. While the Police may take into account the wishes of the individual or his/her family members, the decision whether to issue or not issue an RO lies with the Police. This means that there may be situations where a RO is not issued despite requests by the family members (and vice versa).

7. To be clear, ROs will not be issued in situations where an individual has already fallen victim to a scam, but the Police have no reason to believe that the individual will continue to make money transfers to the same or other scammers.

ROs will only be issued for scams conducted remotely

8. The Police will only issue ROs for cases of cheating 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. 

9. 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

10. 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.

11. ROs will cover the following banking facilities:

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

    2. 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.

    3. 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  These are the major retail banks which manage most of the consumer deposits in Singapore. Issuing the RO to all the seven banks is in case the individual has banking accounts with more than one bank.

Validity of ROs

12. 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.

13. 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 

14. 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

15. Individuals will be allowed to appeal to the Minister for Home Affairs against the Police’s decision to issue the RO. Given that the RO will remain active pending the assessment of the appeal, MHA will ensure that the appeal process is conducted expeditiously. The decision of the Minister for Home Affairs is final.

Invitation to Provide Feedback

16. MHA is inviting members of the public to submit feedback and comments on MHA’s proposal (paragraphs 5 to 15). Specifically, your feedback is requested on the following:

    1. Whether the proposed scope of the RO (viz. suspension of money transfers and credit facilities) is appropriate;

    2. Whether exceptions should be made for individuals issued with an RO to be allowed access to money, taking into consideration that the RO will only be issued as a last resort; and

    3. If so, how this should be implemented, specifically:

       1. Whether to set aside a fixed sum of money at the onset, which the individual can continue to have access to in spite of the RO; or 

       2. Not to set aside a fixed sum of money at the onset, and to consider exceptions on a case-by-case basis.

17. 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

18. Your feedback is important to us. All comments received will be considered. However, we seek the public’s understanding that we will not be able to individually acknowledge or address every comment. To maintain confidentiality of feedback contributors, we will anonymise and aggregate the results of this engagement exercise before any public disclosure.

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.