\n<\/p>\n
Pointing out the difficulties her residents faced when not being able to access or open a bank account, MP Diana Pang (PAP-Marine Parade-Braddell Heights) stressed that \u201cstronger powers\u201d must come with “practical safeguards”.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In his response, Minister of State for Home Affairs Goh Pei Ming said that \u201cno one wants to inadvertently affect or inconvenience\u201d those who may not have been involved in scam activity.<\/span><\/p>\n At the same time, disrupting scams quickly and decisively is essential, he added.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe orders enable us to constrict the supply of scam enablers and disable them before they can be used, and this is ultimately to protect our citizens,\u201d said Mr Goh.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cOur task here is to intervene early, while ensuring adequate safeguards against innocent accounts being affected by these orders.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n MP Jackson Lam (PAP-Nee Soon) said there needs to be a fast review process for genuine cases where an account has been wrongly disabled.<\/span><\/p>\n While the Bill provides an appeal mechanism, there must be a \u201cclear channel\u201d for affected persons to provide evidence quickly and have their accounts reviewed.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe principle should be simple: act fast against scammers, but correct mistakes just as fast when innocent people are affected,\u201d he added.<\/span><\/p>\n MP Gabriel Lam (PAP-Sembawang) said that once there is no longer a risk, access to a wrongly affected account should be restored in hours, not days.<\/span><\/p>\n Mr Goh said that while a \u201cswift and decisive approach\u201d to disrupting scam networks is necessary to protect Singaporeans, the authorities recognise that some individuals may genuinely require and depend on these accounts for their livelihood or daily expenses.<\/span><\/p>\n It is vital that authorities assess appeals fairly and as quickly as possible. More details on the appeal mechanism and timeline will be shared in due course, he said.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThis needs careful consideration, as we have seen cases of scammers coaching victims on what to say to bank staff to evade detection when they transfer money to the scammer,\u201d Mr Goh said.<\/span><\/p>\n