In 2023, the number of crimes committed in Singapore for every 100,000 individuals was 1,188. This was a ten-year high, and mostly due to the increase in scams and cybercrimes cases. Low crime rates in Singapore Singapore has a reputation for being one of the safest cities in the world. Violent crime in Singapore is rare – as of 2021, such crimes accounted for nine per 100 thousand population. One reason for this could be the harsh penalties for offenders, as well as a strict ban on weapons for those not in law enforcement. Singapore still carries out capital punishment for crimes such as murder and the illegal possession of firearms carry the death penalty. Increase in commercial crime The most common type of crime committed in Singapore were commercial crimes, especially scams. As Singaporeans carry out more aspects of everyday life online, so too are criminals looking to take advantage of unsuspecting victims. In 2021, scams involving e-commerce transactions were the most common of such crimes. These typically involve the fraudulent sale of products on C2C commercial sites, which are harder to track. Such scams, however, usually involve smaller amounts of money, unlike investment scams. These involve targeting individuals and tricking them into wiring large sums of money for supposed financial investments. In 2021, individuals in Singapore who fell victim to such scams were cheated out of around 191 million Singapore dollars.

In 2023, job scams were the most common type of scam in Singapore, with around 9,914 cases reported. E-commerce scams also represented a prevalent form of fraud in the country, with over 9,700 cases reported.

Phishing threat in Singapore In Singapore, around 42 thousand different phishing URLs with a .SG domain were detected in 2022. The highest number of phishing URLs was recorded the previous year, with around 55 thousand. Phishing attacks can take many forms, such as corporate e-mail compromise (CEC), mass phishing, or smishing. These phishing e-mails represent a crucial risk for businesses. They can also lead to ransomware infections, which have also increased in recent years.

Data breaches Companies and governments are increasingly relying on technology to collect, analyze, and store personal data. This can lead to potential risks when such data is affected by cyber incidents. In Singapore, the number of exposed data points per thousand people reached 26 in 2022. Over the same period, around 154 thousand data sets were reported as leaked in the country.