SINGAPORE, Nov 4, 2025 (AFP) - Singapore plans to punish online scammers with at least six strokes with a cane, a minister told lawmakers on Tuesday, as the city-state doubles down on syndicates following record-high scam losses.

Southeast Asia's second-largest economy lost more than $2.8 billion through scams from 2020 up to the first half of 2025, Sim Ann, Singapore's senior minister of state for home affairs, told parliament.

Around 190,000 cases of scamming had been reported over that time period, she said.

"We will introduce mandatory caning for scammers," said Sim as an amendment to Singapore's criminal code was presented for a second reading.

"Offenders who commit scams, defined as cheating mainly by means of remote communication, will be punished with at least six strokes of the cane," said the minister.

Singapore was also cracking down on scam syndicates.

"These syndicates mobilise significant resources to conduct and profit from scams, and have the highest level of culpability," Sim said.

Members of scam syndicates and recruiters "will be subject to mandatory caning of at least six strokes", she added.

And those helping scammers, including so-called "money mules" who offer bank accounts or SIM cards, could face caning of up to 12 lashes, according to the bill.

In recent years, Singaporean authorities have intensified public education efforts against scamming, including setting up a national hotline.

In 2020, the government introduced the ScamShield app which allows users to check suspicious calls, websites and messages.

Last year, then-premier Lee Hsien Loong told local media he had been scammed as an item he ordered online never arrived, highlighting how the issue affected all sectors of society.

Cyberscam hubs, which lure foreigners into work in scam hothouses swindling people with online romance and crypto investment cons, have proliferated across Southeast Asia in recent years.

Singapore police said on Friday they had seized more than $115 million in assets tied to Chen Zhi, a British-Cambodian tycoon accused of running forced labour camps in Cambodia used as multi-billion dollar scam centres.

The seizure came after the US Justice Department earlier this month unsealed an indictment against Chen, 37, founder of Prince Holding Group, a multinational conglomerate that Washington said served as a front for "one of Asia's largest transnational criminal organisations".