Singapore Police Say Crypto-Related Crimes Keep Rising across the Country

[noorman0]

Ok, so crypto crime is increasing in Singapore? Very funny.
I have known Singapore since 2017 as a crypto friendly country, found most of the crypto startup companies have a license in Singapore. It doesn't make sense if such legal friendliness doesn't match the readiness of the population to adopt and adapt to crypto, including the possible crimes that will occur next.

Regarding $29m, what I understand is that the criminal report must involve the legal institution where the company license was made even though it operates in a different country or has customers all over the world. So, I doubt that the reported criminal cases occurred or suffered by people not only in Singapore.

[electronicash]

They are blowing this up to look as if this is a huge problem, but have a look at the total amount of crimes (37 409 cases) ... then it is nothing compared to the other cases that are not Crypto related. (393 reports of Crypto related crimes)  

Source : https://www.statista.com/statistics/947850/singapore-total-crime-case-number/

So why is this such a big issue? Well, it is simple.... when you want to create your own digital currency, you have to get some kind of reason to "ban" the competition.  

for a country so small with less than 10M people on it, they do have this huge crime rate for the crypto industry alone, which is really unbelievable. it will only make sense if they are about to regulate it heavily or push their own digital currency for easy regulation. having a CBDC is a great tool for China which is a close neighborhood of China. having a CBDC proves to be an excellent tool for surveillance else China wouldn't be using it.

[fullhdpixel]

The Singaporean police have reported that cryptocurrency-related crimes have skyrocketed since 2018, and the uptrend does not seem to be slowing down. According to The Straits Times, around 393 reports were made last year amid the coronavirus crisis of cases involving crypto frauds, cheating, among others, which is more than three times the figures of 2019.

Additionally, the authorities pointed out that just 125 complaints were filed with the police, representing another surge from the 15 reported in 2018. Furthermore, between 2018 and 2020, criminals stole $29 million during these crypto-related crime cases.

https://www.financemagnates.com/cryptocurrency/news/singapore-police-say-crypto-related-crimes-keep-rising-across-the-country/

During the pandemic I noticed that there was a surge in the rate of crimes that were being committed with bitcoin, it wasn’t just in one country alone, but in lots of countries and I couldn’t really understand why that happened, might have to look into it later. So, it’s not just Singapore that experienced. But that aside, there are still a lot of crimes that are being carried out using fiat and banks and they go unnoticed.

The payment method that is being used by the scammers shouldn’t be the issues here, the focus should be more on how to figure out those that are behind the crime, no matter what methods they decide to use, it will be good to always capture them and make them pay for the crimes they have committed.

[Kiley33]

The popularity of Bitcoin and blockchain has made more and more people notice Bitcoin. Attention to the blockchain. Of course those criminals will notice Bitcoin.
Start studying Bitcoin, and will launder money through Bitcoin's loopholes. However, their behavior will always be public on the public chain.
It is possible that the country's supervision of Bitcoin will become more and more stringent in the future.

[Xinarae*]

Singapore police say crypto related crime is on the rise across the country citing the fact that crypto is not controlled by the government. In order to keep everything anonymous everyone acts as they wish and the government cannot do anything even if it commits a criminal act in addition the demand for crypto through blockchain technology is increasing at a rate that other companies are joining the crypto, so the government companies are afraid. Because such a high demand for crypto will lead crypto to a more advanced state.

[iTradeChips]

Well same as with fiat currency, right? I mean gee, why does the police made a report about Bitcoin and crypto related crimes? I guess their motive is really to be able to make a report since Bitcoin for them is still an unknown to them so their cybercrimes division wants to be sure they have the capability and the knowhow to detect and investigate cyber crimes just like any other crime. They, want to maybe become proficient in their efforts to curb cyber crimes in Singapore. Hence the numbers and the reporting.

[EdenHazard]

Considering the anonymity offered by crypto and the transaction that is not traced by the government, all crimes are possible within it. Scams or frauds are very evident specially for the new ones who are much more likely to be vulnerable in getting involved on such acts. Also, in the dark web, the currency being used is cryptocurrency specially bitcoin wherein it is used for buying illegal stuffs like weapons and videos. It should be expected since the number of crypto investors is also growing and we cannot be certain that all of it does not have any bad ideas in mind.

based on my own experience living and work in out around singapore - malaysia - vietnam - thailand - philippines - myanmar etc.. there is a lot of company running a multi level marketing based-business , mgm etc... and saying they are a tech company using blockchain and bitcoin as their technology but it is all bullshit, they are just gather people and collecting their money and then run.
its been there for years... even from 2014 i have witnessed all of those reports but yeah 2018 is the peak where cases getting wild.

it was a public secret.. i can even mentioned those fake scam companies with its stake holders.. they are pretty dumb bout crypto but smart in scamming.

[maisao1991]

Any strong development has a corollary and if BTC grows in popularity then of course there will be money laundering criminals, because all cryptocurrencies are decentralized. under the control of any organization or individual, so money launderers have paid attention to this form of market. This is also where the fertile ground of many types of criminals are waiting to launder money into legal money.

[Kittygalore]

Of course, what's so surprising about that? The popularity of crypto is growing and this is inevitable.

What's surprising is that they are actively chasing cybercrime which is expected to result from reduction in cyber crimes and crimes committed with some sort of use with crypto or bitcoin but it didn't happen so it's surprising plus crypto just got more popular than ever even though it's already a decade since bitcoin was born.

[Sanugarid]

The Singaporean police have reported that cryptocurrency-related crimes have skyrocketed since 2018, and the uptrend does not seem to be slowing down. According to The Straits Times, around 393 reports were made last year amid the coronavirus crisis of cases involving crypto frauds, cheating, among others, which is more than three times the figures of 2019.

Additionally, the authorities pointed out that just 125 complaints were filed with the police, representing another surge from the 15 reported in 2018. Furthermore, between 2018 and 2020, criminals stole $29 million during these crypto-related crime cases.

https://www.financemagnates.com/cryptocurrency/news/singapore-police-say-crypto-related-crimes-keep-rising-across-the-country/

It's because there's a lot of money involved in cryptocurrency and the number of people who're interested in investing in cryptocurrency steadily increases which became a target for scammers. Admit it or not, illegal crimes such as this already exist in fiats even before the major adoption of cryptocurrency in our society. As the growth for adoption in crypto increases, illegal activities stated above will continue to rise and we will see more things like this in the future

[savetheFORUM]

It's because there's a lot of money involved in cryptocurrency and the number of people who're interested in investing in cryptocurrency steadily increases which became a target for scammers. Admit it or not, illegal crimes such as this already exist in fiats even before the major adoption of cryptocurrency in our society. As the growth for adoption in crypto increases, illegal activities stated above will continue to rise and we will see more things like this in the future

I am feeling this report is biased because if we are able to check then overall crimes are also rising very fluently in many countries, but hatters are joining them with crypto overall it's the least place where criminals are active, but rumours are too much about them in media. Overall crypto growth is rising very quickly so just because of this now most of the hatters using this as negatively otherwise It's nothing serious which is not happening in fiat just ask these are they able to control fiat currency related crimes but are going around the world for very long time.

[Sithara007]

I am feeling this report is biased because if we are able to check then overall crimes are also rising very fluently in many countries, but hatters are joining them with crypto overall it's the least place where criminals are active, but rumours are too much about them in media. Overall crypto growth is rising very quickly so just because of this now most of the hatters using this as negatively otherwise It's nothing serious which is not happening in fiat just ask these are they able to control fiat currency related crimes but are going around the world for very long time.

Report is obviously biased. They are mostly relying on percentage increase rather than absolute increase while talking about the stats. Crypto-related crimes increased from a very low base, and therefore while talking in terms of percentage increase it may look like a big jump. But I am not ignoring the rising incidents. It may not be as bad as they are painting it, but still we can't ignore such incidents. But the way forward is legalization and regulation of the cryptocurrency market. On the other hand, if they try the approach being used in China, there'll be very little success.

[MIldic1c]

This is not only the rise of crypto-related crimes in Singapore, but also the rise of crimes in any country where cryptocurrency is active. Many gambling and scams use crypto for payment or transactions, which makes it impossible for the police to find suspects, because every time Transactions are anonymous!