Live data from Hacker News

Singapore to cane scammers as billions lost in financial crimes

freemalaysiatoday.com

51–60 of 110 posts

Re: Singapore to cane scammers as billions lost in financial crimes

#51

The damage done by scammers is enormous. Families losing their life’s savings. Quite often these scams are perpetrated on less sophisticated people so the economic damage to them is even more devastating. It’s not like the government woke up one day and started to cane scammers. There have been years of educational programs in different languages. A campaign with special focus on protecting the elderly. Every time yo…

My mom just lost about fifteen thousand dollars. The sad part is, she knew full well, for years now, if you hear a certain accent from a cold call, just hang up the phone. She received calls almost every day since she still needs a landline to talk to family, so she is very well versed in avoiding them. So for her to fall for a scam has us worried, it might be a sign of neurodegenerative disease. She went from sharp…

Or they used a different accent

Re: Singapore to cane scammers as billions lost in financial crimes

#52

The damage done by scammers is enormous. Families losing their life’s savings. Quite often these scams are perpetrated on less sophisticated people so the economic damage to them is even more devastating. It’s not like the government woke up one day and started to cane scammers. There have been years of educational programs in different languages. A campaign with special focus on protecting the elderly. Every time yo…

My mom just lost about fifteen thousand dollars. The sad part is, she knew full well, for years now, if you hear a certain accent from a cold call, just hang up the phone. She received calls almost every day since she still needs a landline to talk to family, so she is very well versed in avoiding them. So for her to fall for a scam has us worried, it might be a sign of neurodegenerative disease. She went from sharp…

There should be a special place in hell for people who take advantage of the elderly

Re: Singapore to cane scammers as billions lost in financial crimes

#53

Singapore is an odd country. The only country, to my knowledge, that had independence thrust upon it without its consent. Extremely prosperous compared to its neighbors. An autocratic, single party state where the government is so popular that they need to rig their elections against themselves to get dissenting voices. One of the most militarized countries (#3 by military spending per capita) in the world, yet their…

>What would you even call their socioeconomic system? Asian Switzerland. And if that offends anyone it ought to be the Swiss (and any fanboys they may have who take offense on their behalf).

Hmm, a clean, safe, prosperous country with world class education, top medical facilities, a technocratic highly competent government, reasonable taxes, and a place that people like to come for vacation…I can see how this would offend people

Re: Singapore to cane scammers as billions lost in financial crimes

#54
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would you even call their socioeconomic system? Pure authoritarianism.

And yet the average Singaporean is freer economically, socially, and ideologically.

No freedom of press, no freedom of speech, no freedom of assembly, government owns/operates roughly ⅓ of the economy that features many state monopolies, the PAP maintains a gerrymandered control over the electorate, criticizing the government lands you in court for defamation and conveniently bankrupts can't run for parliament.

Singapore is many things but not none of what you've written.

Re: Singapore to cane scammers as billions lost in financial crimes

#55
post #17

Singapore is an odd country. The only country, to my knowledge, that had independence thrust upon it without its consent. Extremely prosperous compared to its neighbors. An autocratic, single party state where the government is so popular that they need to rig their elections against themselves to get dissenting voices. One of the most militarized countries (#3 by military spending per capita) in the world, yet their…

> What would you even call their socioeconomic system? China economically functions similarly to Singapore, with long documented connections and explicit emulation. In 1978, Deng Xiaoping already began this and hundreds of thousands of Chinese officials and leaders were trained there and in industrial parks with the explicit goal of knowledge sharing with the dream of "planting 1000 Singapores". [0, 1, 2, 3] > fascis…

On top of that: I'm sick of people writing fascism when they mean dictatorship.

Re: Singapore to cane scammers as billions lost in financial crimes

#56
post #23
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What would you even call their socioeconomic system? China economically functions similarly to Singapore, with long documented connections and explicit emulation. In 1978, Deng Xiaoping already began this and hundreds of thousands of Chinese officials and leaders were trained there and in industrial parks with the explicit goal of knowledge sharing with the dream of "planting 1000 Singapores". [0, 1, 2, 3] > fascis…

You might want to freshen up your history lessons with maybe some less revisionist sources, because Mussolini-wise I have some bad news for you.

Then deliver the news and have constructive discussions.

For what it's worth is well accepted among most fascism historians that racism, at least in the sense of adopting racial laws and such came late, and mostly as a byproduct of the German alliance.

As for what did Italy do itself before that, if you're referring to the wars in Africa, that has nothing to do with fascism, and the two biggest colonial powers at the time were both very sane democracies.

Re: Singapore to cane scammers as billions lost in financial crimes

#57
post #28
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might want to freshen up your history lessons with maybe some less revisionist sources, because Mussolini-wise I have some bad news for you.

I'm not defending any of those people. Mussolini was a monster who used gas in Ethiopia and many other things, yes. But that wasn't the topic. Fascist Italy didn't do "racist scapegoating" and blame internal problems on people of other races.

Italy's favorite scapegoat was almost always Britain and the UN's predecessor.

Re: Singapore to cane scammers as billions lost in financial crimes

#58
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And yet the average Singaporean is freer economically, socially, and ideologically.

No freedom of press, no freedom of speech, no freedom of assembly, government owns/operates roughly ⅓ of the economy that features many state monopolies, the PAP maintains a gerrymandered control over the electorate, criticizing the government lands you in court for defamation and conveniently bankrupts can't run for parliament. Singapore is many things but not none of what you've written.

Singaporeans have insanely high quality of life and high pride in their system and people. They have an immense number of negative freedoms that the average person across the world could only dream of: freedom from violence, freedom from the devastating effects of drug addiction on families and society, freedom from poverty, freedom from corruption, freedom from instability. For the average person looking to raise a family, build a quality life, and just live well, Singapore is the perfect social contract. Don't like it? They have the most powerful or second most powerful passport in the world and can move anywhere else they see fit, yet they see their country as the best place they could be

Re: Singapore to cane scammers as billions lost in financial crimes

#59
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "The country also passed a new law earlier this year that would allow the police to control the bank accounts of individuals who they suspect to be scam targets and limit what transactions they can do." This is crazy to me. How far are we willing to go in terms of restricting freedoms for safety?

But this is just part of how Singapore is different than America and Europe. China has even stricter controls in terms of limiting what individuals can do with their bank accounts (you can't transfer money to non-Chinese-citizens at all!). Western countries put enormous value on personal liberty — America probably the most so, but even EU countries are extremely liberal in a liberty sense compared to historical norms…

you can't transfer money to non-Chinese-citizens at all!

that's not true. you just have to document and explain the transfer, if it is a foreign bank account. if it is a local one then the citizenship of the account holder does not even matter.

Western countries put enormous value on personal liberty

in everyday life the limits on personal liberty in china are hardly noticeable. and they are contrasted with safety even when walking through dark neighborhoods at 3am in the morning.

Re: Singapore to cane scammers as billions lost in financial crimes

#60
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What would you even call their socioeconomic system? China economically functions similarly to Singapore, with long documented connections and explicit emulation. In 1978, Deng Xiaoping already began this and hundreds of thousands of Chinese officials and leaders were trained there and in industrial parks with the explicit goal of knowledge sharing with the dream of "planting 1000 Singapores". [0, 1, 2, 3] > fascis…

Eh, that's giving Mussolini more credit than he deserves. A core component of his platform was conquering swathes of Africa on colonial grounds.

That has nothing to do with fascism as you may not be aware but Italy started fighting colonial wars well before WW1 and the other hard on colonialists were all democracies.
Post reply on HN