The Anti-Scam Command and retail fraud

Scale

The great majority of crypto-related police reports in Singapore are retail scams. They include investment scams promising returns on crypto trading, job scams paid in USDT, impersonation scams in which victims are directed to buy crypto at a kiosk and send it to the fraudster, and romance scams. The Singapore Police Force reported scam losses exceeding S$ 1 billion in 2024, with investment scams the largest category and a substantial share involving cryptocurrency as the payment rail.¹ The Anti-Scam Command, established within the Criminal Investigation Department in 2022, consolidates the Anti-Scam Centre, the police's scam-strike teams and liaison officers embedded with banks and, since 2023, with digital payment token licensees.

Tools

The Anti-Scam Centre's effectiveness rests on speed. Bank liaison officers freeze accounts within hours of a report. The same model has been extended to the larger exchanges, which have agreed to freeze accounts and preserve records on police request. The Online Criminal Harms Act 2023 allows the police to issue directions to online services, including app stores and messaging platforms, to remove scam content and to disable accounts. Its codes of practice impose duties on designated platforms.² From 2024 MAS and the police have also required digital payment token licensees to participate in shared fraud-surveillance arrangements, mirroring the duties imposed on banks under the Shared Responsibility Framework for phishing scams.

Client question

"A client of my family office sent 200,000 USDT to a 'trading platform' that has disappeared. What can the Singapore police do?" File a report immediately, with transaction hashes, wallet addresses and all communications. The Anti-Scam Centre will ask Singapore-licensed exchanges to freeze any accounts the USDT reached and may request freezes from foreign exchanges through police channels. Tether itself has frozen addresses on law-enforcement request. In parallel, start the civil tracing route described in Chapter III, because the police will not recover the funds for your client. Their task is prosecution. Recovery follows only if the assets are seized and the court orders their return.

Notes

Singapore Police Force, Annual Scams and Cybercrime Brief 2024, published February 2025. ↩
Online Criminal Harms Act 2023, Parts 2 and 3, Singapore Statutes Online. ↩

For general information only. This article does not constitute legal or tax advice, does not replace advice on an individual case and creates no lawyer-client relationship. It reflects the legal position as of October 2026.

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Dr Alexander Ressos, TEP

Of Counsel, KGP Legal LLC

I am Of Counsel with KGP Legal LLC in Singapore, where I work with a global client base of successful entrepreneurs and their families, independent asset managers, commodity trading houses and other commercial clients. I am a German and Swiss attorney-at-law, also admitted as a solicitor in England & Wales and in Hong Kong. I divide my time between Zug in Switzerland, Singapore and Hong Kong. Since 2017 I have advised international clients on more than 700 crypto and digital asset projects. I also have extensive experience in cross-border litigation and arbitration in Singapore, Hong Kong and other markets in South-East Asia and Greater China.

I operate across the key financial centres in South-East Asia, the Middle East and Switzerland, with a particular focus on asset protection, international tax and estate planning, as well as trusts, company administration and other fiduciary services. My philosophy is to serve as a trusted advisor working closely with my clients and to help them achieve their commercial objectives.

All Singapore law advice is provided through KGP Legal LLC, an established and duly licensed firm of Singapore advocates and solicitors.

KGP Legal LLC is a medium-sized law firm in Singapore that is capable of providing the full range of legal services and corporate administration work. Please contact me if you need any further information.

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SingaporeIQ is edited by Dr Alexander Ressos, an international business lawyer with more than 15 years of local experience in Singapore as a permanent resident, a Singapore registered foreign lawyer and managing partner of a Singapore foreign law practice. In addition to significant experience in cross-border investments and transactions, UHNWI private client work and sanctions/export controls, Dr Ressos has extensive experience in cross-border business and in crypto and digital-asset projects in Singapore, drawn from more than 700 projects since 2017.

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