‘Not the time to go soft’: Shanmugam signals tough laws for young scam mules after High Court ruling

SINGAPORE - New laws will be introduced soon to ensure deterrent sentences on those who facilitate scams regardless of age, following a recent High Court ruling that gave young scam mules probation and community sentences.

The legislation will make clear that the court’s ruling in that case is not to be followed, said Senior Minister K. Shanmugam, noting that while scammers are ultimately responsible, the crime was made possible because of the young scam mules who gave up their bank or Singpass accounts for money.

He told the House that the cost of scams has been devastating, especially on elderly victims who lost their life savings.

Responding to questions about young people and scams on Oct 6, Shanmugam, who is also the Coordinating Minister for National Security and Minister for Home Affairs, said many young mules know they are doing something wrong.

He said: “Many of the young people that we pick up and investigate know precisely what they were doing... they knew that they shouldn’t be doing it, but they were tempted by the $800, $1,000 that they were offered.”

In a ruling by the High Court on Sept 10, a three-judge panel consisting of Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon, Justice Ang Cheng Hock and Justice Hoo Sheau Peng allowed appeals by several young scam mules.

This included a 20-year-old who was 18 when he was offered $800 for a bank account, which was then used to open another bank account.

A 66-year-old victim was scammed into transferring almost $200,000 into this second account.

The High Court later sentenced the youth to probation, because it considered rehabilitation to be the primary sentencing consideration for young offenders.

Probation not appropriate

But this rationale contradicts the approach of the sentencing guidelines, which say probation and community sentences are generally not appropriate, said Shanmugam.

He said: “If young offenders are being treated more leniently simply because of their age, you can be sure that scam syndicates will have every incentive to recruit more young people as mules. We cannot and will not allow this to happen.”

The High Court ruling allowed four appeals, which saw four youths aged 20 to 21 getting probation instead of reformative training.

It also dismissed an appeal by the prosecution for a 17-year-old mule who was sentenced to a short detention order and community service instead of reformative training.

Shanmugam said the new laws to be introduced will make it clear that the Government has made a deliberate policy judgment that deterrence and prevention must carry greater weight for scam offences.

He said: “It is understandable for the court, which comprises two Court of Appeal judges including the Chief Justice, looking at the individual young offenders in front of them to feel sympathy for those individuals, and be inclined to impose rehabilitative sentences on youth offenders.

“However, the Court did not have before it the policy perspectives that I have just laid out, nor the data on the scale of the problem of scams and scammers – the huge amount of losses through scams, and the full human cost of such scams.”

Over $4 billion has been lost to scams here since 2019, with a record high of $1.1 billion lost in 2024 alone.

Shanmugam said scam losses have since fallen slightly after the Government pushed for tougher penalties for scammers and mules.

$2m scam losses daily

But scams continue to be a significant problem, costing victims an average of $2 million every day in the first half of 2026.

He said: “Scammers have continued to adapt and attempt to overcome our measures. So, this is certainly not the time to go soft.”

The Ministry of Home Affairs was particularly concerned that many young people are getting involved in scams offences, with more than 1,000 such youth investigated in 2025, said Shanmugam.

He said that same year, there were over 5,000 elderly scam victims, who lost a total of around $200 million.

He mentioned two other cases involving elderly victims, who lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in 2024 after falling for scams that used bank accounts from young scam mules.

Shanmugam said he had considered showing Parliament the photos and names of some of the victims, but did not as the victims did not want the stigma of being identified.

Cassandra Lee (West Coast-Jurong West GRC) said her residents have approached her saying they were deceived and manipulated into becoming mules or getting involved in scams.

She asked if the new laws to be proposed will consider what deterrence would be most effective for the young.

Shanmugam said that for every one such case alleging they were deceived, there are several others involving elderly who have lost their life savings to scams.

He said he recognises there will be some who were genuinely misled and it is possible for them to face a different sentence such as probation, but protecting people from losing their money to scams is still key.

He said: “When it comes to this, to me, deterrence is the primary factor to stop it from happening... as I said, this is not an occasion to go soft.”