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Singapore crime rose 7.4% last year

SINGAPORE — The overall crime in Singapore rose 7.4 per cent last year, primarily due to more cheating cases involving e-commerce, the Singapore Police Force (SPF) said today (Jan 29).

The SPF said that there was a 225.3 per cent increase in the number of cheating cases involving e-commerce last year compared to 2013.

A total of 904 cases last year involved multiple payment online purchase scams. There were 122 cases of phony PayPal email scams, 197 cases of Internet love scams, and 257 cases of cyber extortion.

The SPF also reported increases in violent or serious property crimes and commercial crimes. However, there were sharp decreases in housebreaking and related crimes, as well as theft and related crimes.

Last year, there was also a slight increase in outrage of modesty cases – from 1,325 in 2013 to 1,367. Meanwhile, the number of harassment cases related to unlicensed money lending fell by 18.3 per cent.

Deputy Commissioner (Investigations & Intelligence) Tan Chye Hee said: “Overall crime has increased but our crime rate remains low. Crimes are shifting online and new scams are constantly emerging, with victims falling prey every day.

"On a positive note, the Unlicensed Moneylending and Harassment situation has been improving steadily. The Police will continue to raise awareness of scams so that members of public will not fall prey to them. We will also press on with our tough enforcement efforts against unlicensed moneylending-related activities."

 

Correction: In an earlier version of this story, we reported the overall crime rate in Singapore rose 7.4 per cent last year. This is incorrect. Overall crime cases rose 7.4 per cent. We are sorry for the error. 

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