While some of us are fumbling with our SIM cards – making sure the size is right, making sure we don’t lose it and making sure we can contact the service provider, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) tabled a new bill in Parliament on 7 Mar about SIM cards instead.
Tabling a bill sounds like something you’d do in a restaurant. However, it’s a process where our MPs debate about whether this new proposed law is something we need and is useful.
Once it’s passed, it’s a law and criminals that fall under this will be punished. Here’s what you need to know.
The Law Enforcement and Other Matters Bill
The Law Enforcement and Other Matters Bill was proposed in light of rising cases of criminal activities related to SIM cards.
The bill criminalises people who use Singaporean SIM cards anyhowly and commit fraud or to hide their identities while they commit other crimes.
This is incredibly dangerous, especially when a SIM card is closely tagged to your identity – authentication and verification, passwords, and banking.
What’s more concerning is that there are people who sell their SIM cards to others for extra cash. This means that they could do anything and it can be still tied to you.
Without the due processes of purchasing a SIM card for legit purposes such as identification information and proper receipts, there is technically no stopping the culprits from committing crimes and misusing them for personal gain.
What are the Punishments?
Those who are caught misusing local SIM cards can be jailed for up to three years or fined up to SGD$10,000 or both.
The seriousness of the crime is comparable to theft in Singapore. Under Section 379, those who commit theft can be imprisoned up to 3 years or fined or both depending on the extent of the offence.
Offenders who think they can get away with it and repeat their offence can expect greater punishments – imprisonment of up to 5 years, or fine up to SGD$20,000 or both.
Don’t test your luck. A second offence can lead you into the repeat offender category. You can’t simply get out of it either and say that you didn’t know it was going to be used for crimes. This bill can hold you accountable to some extent even if you “didn’t know” too.
Mobile Line Scams
Love scams, product scams, job scams… criminals are getting more and more persistent and creative.
The Singapore Police Force shared that since Jan 2023, close to 4,000 victims are caught in phone calls/Whatsapp scams asking for money. Victims get a text or call from a stranger pretending to be someone you know.
They’d believe them because they see the “+65” phone number pre-fix instead of a foreign number, which is more commonly associated with scams.
These, and other related scams involving phone numbers have risen exponentially due to the accessibility and convenience of buying a SIM card here. Scammers take advantage of our inherent inkling to trust a local number and use it instead to commit crimes.
Therefore, the police found it important that people are limited to buying and registering at most 10 post-paid SIM cards (in effect from 15 Apr) and at most three pre-paid cards.
The Bill will continue to be debated. Until then, avoid selling your unused SIM cards to random people online. You won’t know what they would do with it, and this time, you might get implicated in their crimes.
If you register for a SIM card, make sure you keep the receipts and transaction information just in case.
On another note, unless you’re expecting a call from an unknown number, it’s best you ignore them.