Commentary: Put an end to scam syndicates by making them pay the price

CANBERRA: Once upon a time, dating apps were simply avenues for new romantic beginnings. Now, they are also fertile ground for scammers to sweet talk their way into your bank account.

Even digital natives are not impervious to the rising threat of online scams. In Singapore, the number of scam cases from January to June 2023 grew by 64.5 per cent compared with the same period in 2022.

But, unbeknownst to many, they are not the only victims - the scammers themselves often are too. In Southeast Asia, hundreds of thousands of people are regularly trafficked into online scamming operations, according to a report by the United Nations Human Rights Office. 

This comes as no surprise. Human trafficking is one of the most lucrative organised crimes, with the International Labour Organization estimating that it generates US$150 billion in profits annually.

Wherever there is money to be made, crime follows. As organised crime groups get better at what they do and start to rake in massive profits, they need to find a way to account for their otherwise unexplained wealth. This is why they resort to washing their money.

Resourceful as these criminals are, they are also predictable. If money is the driving force behind all organised crime, then it only makes sense to take away their nest egg, so that the risk of committing a crime outweighs its rewards.

In other words, we have to hit them where it hurts by draining their cash flow - which takes an equally organised, whole-of-society effort to pull off.

FOLLOW THE MONEY

When it comes to crime syndicates, money - not manners - maketh man. Whether it is smuggling drugs and weapons or trafficking wildlife or humans, the crime is secondary to them. All that matters is that an illegal activity is low risk, high reward.

In India, for example, the tech support scam industry is as lucrative as it gets. With just an internet connection and some IT equipment, scam operations - disguised as legitimate call centres - can conduct their business remotely to earn big money. It hardly helps that there is a severe lack of enforcement from the authorities.

As long as one illegal activity is not properly punished, criminals may take it as an invitation to move on to even bigger crimes. To deter criminal activity, we must disrupt the profitability of their business.

Say you are investigating a scam syndicate. Arresting individual scammers can make no difference to the operation whatsoever. They can easily be replaced by new hires. The same goes for money mules, who are recruited as middlemen in transferring money to the criminal masterminds.

The only way of shutting down a scam operation completely is to follow the money trail up to nab the people who own the computers and routers, manage the technical infrastructure, oversee manpower and logistics, and more.

EMPOWERING AUTHORITIES TO STEM ORGANISED CRIME

Laws must be in place to empower authorities to seize the assets of crime syndicates.

For instance, Singapore’s Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Serious Crimes (Confiscation of Benefits) Act 1992 combats serious offences - including both customs and excise duty evasion - by providing a legal framework for law enforcement to seize assets obtained through illicit activities.

The 1992 Act is complemented by the Organised Crime Act 2015, which establishes a non-conviction-based regime to confiscate the benefits from organised criminal activity.

Both can potentially be expanded to cover the illicit vape trade, seeing as it is a growing threat in Singapore. In June 2023, an attempt to smuggle more than 120,000 vaping products from Malaysia was foiled by the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority, the largest haul since April 2022.

There is reason to be hopeful, as the Ministry of Home Affairs is currently assessing if the import and sale of vapes can be classified as a serious offence under the Organised Crime Act.

No matter the type of crime, and especially when it takes place on an international scale, criminals will launder their money to legitimise their funds and avoid triggering suspicion.

Unfortunately, there is the misperception that money laundering is less urgent compared to violent crime. Its link to violence is often obscured by its label as a white-collar crime that only results in financial losses, as in the case of Singapore’s recent S$3 billion (US$2.2 billion) money laundering case which involved property and crypto investments. 

The truth is, as money laundering siphons money away from the legitimate economy, the biggest victims are the everyday person struggling with the rising cost of living while criminals are bathing in cash.

Every dollar seized from a crime syndicate can mean a dollar more for public spending, be it funding law enforcement agencies, improving public infrastructure or boosting social welfare programmes.

CIRCLING THE WAGONS

With globalisation and the porousness of borders, criminals are banding together to increase profits. There needs to be greater cross-jurisdictional collaboration for us to even stand a chance of thwarting their plans.

Today, criminals operate in sophisticated ways that may be beyond government agencies. A regular law enforcement officer may not possess expertise on something like cryptocurrency. Governments must get used to relying on financial institutions and private sector experts who have the relevant technical knowhow. 

For instance, the success of Operation DisrupTor, a 2020 international investigation targeting drug traffickers on the dark web, was a result of such cross-agency collaboration.

Its joint task force - consisting of law enforcement agencies from multiple countries and private sector partners - was able to infiltrate supposedly anonymous corners of the internet to arrest 179 criminals worldwide, and seize US$6.5 million dollars and 500kg of drugs.

These criminal activities cross borders, and that is what is required of our law enforcement if we are to successfully combat them.

Collaboration between agencies, governments and even private sectors is vital in staying one step ahead of scam groups. Otherwise, they can easily set up, scam thousands, launder the proceeds and disappear in the time that one agency takes to mobilise a response alone.

The common mindset that governments have is that once criminals cross the borders, it is someone else’s problem. This is an irresponsible way to think - we can’t simply take the benefits of globalisation and then turn our backs on international crime. 

Shane Britten is the CEO of Crime Stoppers International, a global non-profit organisation that educates communities about transnational crime and works closely with law enforcement agencies around the world to fight it.