Singapore -Last year, Charlotte Go received a call from someone claiming to be a Cyber Security institution in Singapore.
The sender told GOH that her number was linked to a scam targeted by Malaysians, and turned her to the Malaysian interpol to submit a report.
As a selling expert who frequently lists her numbers in public, GOH asked to use a pseudonym, but the story was the plausible.
For two hours, GOH shared personal information such as her name and identification number, but she hesitate to disclose the exact bank details.
“I didn’t know if it was a scam -it sounded very true, but I was afraid of it,” she told Aljazilla.
When she was asked to shoot himself in an official ID card, Go noticed that she was scammed and hanging up. Fortunately, the 58 -year -old GOH was able to change the password quickly before the money was stolen and transfer money to his daughter’s account.
Other people in her friend’s circle were not so lucky.
“I lost thousands of friends,” she said.
Singapore, one of the most wealthy and most familiar countries in the world, is a major target of global scammers.
In the 2023 edition of the Global Anti -Skam Alliance Annual Report, Singapore had $ 4,031 average loss per country in the survey.
In the first half of 2024, fraud reports reached a record high of 26,587, with a loss of $ 284 million.
To fight this, the government rely on unprecedented measures.
Earlier this month, Singapore Congress has passed the first law to give authorities with new authority to freeze a bank account suspected of fraud.
Under the protection of the fraudulent bill, the designated officers block their personal transactions if they believe that they will transfer funds, withdraw money, or use credit facilities to make profits to scammers. You can order the bank to do so.
The affected people still have access to funds for daily living expenses.
Singapore police say that persuading the victims of fraudulent is a permanent challenge.
Despite the introduction of functions such as many anti -SCAM initiatives, education initiatives, bank’s kill switches, 86 % of the reported fraud reported by the city nation from January to September 2024. It was related to.
The general tactics used by scammers include spoofing government officials and creating romantic illusions.
“The bill will make the police actively actively enable the gap of weapons to scammer,” said San, the Minister of Family Development, San, San.
The law has been welcomed by its supporters as an important tool for fighting frauds that extend RAMP, but also surprised the discussions on the famous trends intervening in the Singapore government.
Critics regard the law as an extension of paternal governance, concrete by the late Singapore founding leader, Lee Kuan Yoo. It is possible to intervene in personal issues such as “Who is your neighbor, how you live, you make noise, how to vomit.”
In a speech to the parliament before passing the bill, Jams Rim, a minor parliamentary parliamentary parliament, expressed concern about the disturbing nature of the law, and as an administrator or an administrator. It suggests that you are allowed to specify a reliable family.
“It may be particularly unpleasant to give a bill to the law executive agency to a law execution agency to a law execution agency to the law execution agency,” said Rim.
BERTHA HENSON, a former editor of The Straits Times, stated that this law was only the latest government that intervened in “many parts of our lives.”
“Can we grow up and keep running to the state to protect?” Henson posted on Facebook. “Because we really should think more and ask who will protect the individual from the nation, or whether the right hand can always guarantee the rudder.”
Since the government is developing a range of measures to strengthen public security, the debate is to plan to exceed 200,000 by the mid -2030s and detain individuals in mental health. Includes legal revisions that give new permissions. It is considered a safety risk.
Other recent laws, such as the online false and operating methods, operation methods, and the protection of foreign interference laws (countermeasures), reflect the efforts to deal with incorrect information and external effects.
It has been cast as a measure to protect national security and social stability, but authorities have granted a wide range of discretion.
Walter Theira, an associate professor of Singapore University of Social Science (SUSS), said that the government’s anti -SCAM law reflects the sudden economic and social costs of urban state fraud.
THATIRA says that there is a risk of losing everything outside the Singapore’s forced savings scheme, which is used to supply money to retirement, medical care, and housing needs. He said he was selecting.
“Unfortunately, if your decision depends on your society or encouraged more criminal acts, the right to do what you want in your funds may be limited. I can’t do it, “THEIRA told Al Jazeera.
Eugene Tan, an associate professor at the Singapore Management University (SMU) Faculty of Law, spurs the increase in fraud, which focuses on preventing fraud before fraud occurs. He said that he applied it.
“If it’s not urgently and robust, we’re not far from the unreasonable disaster,” Tan told Al Jazira.
“The government is living in social costs and escapes the obligation to not deal with the approaching crisis.”
Trust of the government
The legal supporters argue that it is strictly defined within that range. The Law specifies that if all other efforts that individuals are convinced fail, the restriction orders will only be issued as a last resort.
Also, individuals have the right to appeal for restrictions. This lasts for 30 days and can be extended up to 5 times.
Singapore, although the laws may seem to be in the way of outsiders, the Singapore is widely hoped that the government will play a positive role in supervising the public’s welfare and happiness. Tan Erung Cell, an associate professor of university (NUS) sociology.
“In a sense, Singaporean does not want the” parent’s support “of paternalism, but explained the public’s expectations for the” paternalism’s selection and narrow form “and told Al Jazira.
Tan states that Singapore is the highest trust of the government, and that it has cited an Asian barometer and global value surveys.
Tan pointed out that Singaporean has widely accepted home orders, forced masks, and contact traces in COVID-19 pandemic.
YIP HON WENG, a member of the ruler of the ruler, said that the extended police authority was a necessary response to the increase in fraud.
“This ability is a game changer of repeatedly targeted victims to prevent further economic losses at an important moment,” YIP told Al Jazeera and lost his life. Shared the case of elderly residents in the ward. Become a scammer pretending to be a government official.
“Temporarily restricting account access is a dramatic step, but it can be saved by individuals from economic ruin, but such measures are noted to avoid impairing the trust of the people. I need to exercise.
YIP stated that the law “temporarily restrict access to account -a subtle balance between the protection of personal institutions and the robust implementation”.
Some analysts say the law is suitable for Singapore’s political context, but such measures may not be so easily adopted in a global context.
“It is necessary for the countries to decide what is useful for them and whether the legislature has agreed to deal with fraud,” said SMU’s sunburn. The political cost of such measures cannot be overlooked. “
Already, Sousse’s irritation said that the law had attracted negative online chatting and sacrificed political capital to the government.
The Singapore general election, which will be held by November, has a growing dissatisfaction with the reasonable prices of houses, increased living expenses, income inequality, increased polarization, and recognized restrictions on opposition in civil society. It happens.
NUS’S TAN said that it is unlikely that anti -SCAM law will set a global precedent in a time when politicians and governments are growing.
“As a whole, my views are designed to restrict or suppress advanced trust, social unity, and consensus for the government/system, but are restricted or restricted for good intervention and legitimate causes. It is destroyed and designed to be polarized, and in the true era, “Fouls and fouls are fair.”