Here’s What You Can Do If Someone is Stalking You

Last updated on July 6, 2026

Have you ever received incessant unwanted phone calls, text messages and emails from someone, or harboured a niggling suspicion that someone may be following you around when you’re out and about?

These are common instances of stalking that can cause extreme discomfort, fear and anxiety. In extreme cases, victims may even find it difficult to go about their daily activities.

This article will cover:

What is Stalking?

Is there a legal definition for stalking under our laws?

Under the Protection from Harassment Act (POHA), unlawful stalking is defined as engaging in acts associated with stalking which have caused harassment, alarm, distress or humiliation to the victim. Additionally, the perpetrator must have intended to cause harassment, alarm, distress or humiliation to the victim, knew that they were likely to do so by their actions, or ought reasonably to have known so.

What are some examples of acts associated with stalking?

Stalking covers a broad range of behaviours that can range from the seemingly innocuous (e.g. repeated requests for connection over social media platforms) to outright threats.

Section 7 of the POHA provides examples of acts that are associated with stalking:

Following the victim;
Communicating or attempting to communicate with the victim;
Entering or loitering around the victim’s home, workplace, or any other location frequented by the victim;
Interfering with the victim’s property;
Giving or sending material to the victim;
Keeping the victim under surveillance;
Engaging in online activity in any online location (whether public or private, e.g., public social media accounts or private chats) which is visited by the victim;
Making a presence felt to the victim in any online location (whether public or private).

These acts can also constitute stalking if they are directed towards “a related person”, which refers to any person whose safety or wellbeing the victim would be seriously concerned about. For instance, this could include the victim’s family members and loved ones.

POHA also provides some illustrations as to what constitutes acts of stalking:

Repeatedly sending emails to a victim containing suggestive remarks about the victim’s body;
Sending flowers to the victim despite the victim requesting the sender to stop;
Repeatedly circulating revealing photographs of the victim to the victim’s classmates;
Repeatedly posting emojis or symbols on the victim’s social media account page despite the victim asking on multiple occasions to stop.

To further illustrate what stalking constitutes, here are some real-life cases of stalking that have occurred in Singapore:

A man was sentenced to three months and one week’s imprisonment for stalking a woman that he harboured romantic feelings for by sending her unwanted text messages, loitering around her workplace and following her all the way home. He also sent an envelope containing love letters and photographs of the victim to her place of residence, causing her to feel frightened and alarmed.
A man was sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment for stalking and harassing female students under the guise of conducting surveys. He would lie to students that he was conducting surveys on behalf of recognised educational institutions or government agencies, collect their personal information via the fake surveys, and proceed to send them text messages or even keep them under surveillance. He even used his alumni account with the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) to check if a particular victim was registered in the school system, obtained her user details via the school’s directory, and sent her text messages telling her that he knew she had been enrolled in NTU and that he had access to her details.
A woman was harassed and stalked online for a period of two years by her colleague’s wife, who created around a dozen social media accounts under false identities to send the victim troubling messages. The continual online harassment negatively affected the victim’s work performance and educational pursuits.

As can be seen above, stalking includes both physical and online stalking. Victims of online stalking may have a further avenue to seek help by filing a report with the Online Safety Commission (OSC). For a more detailed discussion on this, do refer to our other article on online stalking.

Is Stalking a Criminal Offence in Singapore?

Under POHA, stalking is a criminal offence in Singapore. Those found guilty of unlawful stalking may be subject to a fine of up to $5,000, imprisonment for a term of up to 12 months, or both.

What Avenues For Legal Recourse are Available to Victims of Stalking?

There are various avenues of legal recourse available to victims of stalking which would depend on the severity of the situation, the type of stalking behaviour exhibited by the perpetrator, and the level of danger that the victim is facing.

Mediation

Mediation could be a viable option if you know the stalker personally and you feel that things can be resolved without escalating the situation or taking legal action.

During a mediation session, a neutral third party – known as a mediator – will help you and the other party reach an amicable agreement to resolve the dispute. The mediator plays a facilitative role in the process of mediation; he or she does not make a decision on the issue at hand (unlike a judge in a trial), but instead assists the parties in expressing their concerns and engaging in open dialogue in an attempt to reach a mutually agreeable resolution.

If you manage to reach an agreement with the other party, the terms of the agreement will be recorded in a binding written agreement. Hence, if one party fails to adhere to the terms of the agreement, it can be enforced as a court order. In the context of a stalking case, such a settlement might entail an agreement not to escalate the matter to the police as long as the other party ceases all stalking behaviour with immediate effect.

However, given the highly interactive nature of the mediation process (in which you are required to actively engage with the other party to come up with a viable solution), mediation may not be suitable if you feel uncomfortable being in the same room with the stalker or having to interact with them in any way.

In Singapore, you may approach the Community Mediation Centre (CMC) which provides mediation services. However, do note that mediation at the CMC only applies to interpersonal relations such as:

Neighbours
Family members
Friends
Co-workers
Landlords and tenants

Therefore, as mentioned above, mediation could be suitable if you have an existing relationship with the alleged stalker that you wish to maintain, you do not wish to report him/her to the authorities, and you are making the active choice to pursue mediation first because you believe that his/her actions can be addressed without the need to take strict legal action.

Additionally, mediation is generally regarded as a less costly and more time-efficient method of dispute resolution. Mediation also affords parties more confidentiality and flexibility, and could aid in the preservation of relationships.

For more information on mediation, do refer to our comprehensive guide to the process of mediation in Singapore.

Making a police report

If you feel that the situation is too severe for mediation, the identity of your stalker is unknown or perhaps mediation has failed, and the extent of stalking has since escalated, you may wish to make a police report.

As mentioned above, stalking is a criminal offence in Singapore. If you wish to make a police report, you would need to show that the perpetrator’s acts of stalking have caused you harassment, alarm or distress. With regard to evidence, if you have been stalked online, you could present screenshots of messages from the stalker, call logs indicating the number of times you have been called by the stalker, as well as any social media profiles created by the stalker to reach out to you. If you have been stalked physically, you could try to obtain CCTV footage of the stalker loitering around the places that you frequent.

The police will investigate the situation, apprehend the stalker (if investigations reveal that the offence of stalking has been established) and refer the case to the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) for prosecution if necessary. The AGC will then decide whether or not to bring a criminal charge against the stalker on the basis of prosecutorial discretion, and you may be required to testify in court if the matter goes to trial. The court will then assess the case and determine the appropriate penalty for the stalker, if they are found guilty. In some cases (i.e. if it is not in the public interest to do so), the AGC may decide not to prosecute the stalker, but issue him/her a warning instead.

Here are some of the penalties that perpetrators have received in stalking cases:

A man was sentenced to 41 weeks’ imprisonment for stalking his ex-counsellor and insulting a preschool teacher. He had stalked his ex-counsellor for a month by calling her, sending her messages on WhatsApp and Facebook, sending her emails after she blocked his phone number, and even contacting her employer. He even transferred her sums of money via PayNow in a bid to reach out to her.
A man was sentenced to 18 weeks’ imprisonment for stalking a car sales consultant who refused to take pictures with him by sending her emails threatening to shoot her with a gun and destroy her cars. After she declined to take a picture with him a second time at the Singapore Motorshow 2024, he also sent alarming messages to the event’s Instagram account threatening to bomb one of the car distributors and stab the woman with a penknife.

In Lee Shing Chan v Public Prosecutor, the High Court set out a 5-step sentencing framework for stalking offences under POHA:

1. First, the court will identify the level of harm caused by the offence (slight, moderate or severe) and the perpetrator’s level of culpability for the offence (low, medium, or high). This will be determined by assessing the following offence-specific factors, which are non-exhaustive:

Factors going towards harm

Factors going towards culpability

The nature and extent of harm suffered by the victim e.g. safety, health, reputation, economic position, freedom
Harm caused to third parties e.g. other related persons such as loved ones or family members of the victim
The victim’s age, physical and mental health, and personality

Whether the offender intended to cause harassment, alarm or distress, knew that his/her conduct was likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress, or ought reasonably to have known so
Whether the offender has low IQ or suffers from a mental condition which affects his mental responsibility for the offence
The degree of premeditation and sophistication of the stalking offence committed — for instance, going to great lengths to find out the victim’s home address or workplace and lying in wait at these locations in anticipation of the victim
The nature and combination of the stalking acts e.g. publicly broadcasting sensitive information, making severe threats, exceptional duration or frequency of stalking

2. Second, the court will identify an indicative sentencing range by having regard to the following table:

Harm Culpability	Slight	Moderate	Severe
Low	Fine/short imprisonment term of up to 2 months	2+ to 4 months’ imprisonment	4+ to 6 months’ imprisonment
Medium	2+ to 4 months’ imprisonment	4+ to 6 months’ imprisonment	6+ to 9 months’ imprisonment
High	4+ to 6 months’ imprisonment	6+ to 9 months’ imprisonment	9+ to 12 months’ imprisonment

3. Third, the court will identify an appropriate starting point within the range chosen. This is done by once again referring to the offence-specific factors and harm and culpability that have been listed above.

4. Fourth, the court will adjust the starting point based on offender-specific aggravating and mitigating factors as shown below (also non-exhaustive):

Aggravating factors	Mitigating factors
The presence of other charges being taken into consideration for sentencing (known as “TIC charges”) Previous convictions for similar offences Lack of remorse from the offender (e.g., the stalker)	Stalker’s plea of guilt Stalker’s cooperation with the authorities Stalker has made an apology or taken other concrete steps to prevent further harm to the victim

5. Finally, if the stalker has been convicted of multiple offences, the court will consider whether further adjustments should be made to the sentence to ensure the most appropriate punishment for the offender.

Hence, it is likely that the courts will follow this 5-step framework when it comes to calibrating sentences for stalking offences under Section 7 of POHA.

For more detailed information on offence and offender-specific factors that the court will consider in a criminal case, do refer to our articles on aggravating and mitigating factors respectively.

Magistrate’s Complaint

In the event that the police do not take up your case for further investigation or the prosecution decides not to bring a charge against the stalker, you may file a Magistrate’s Complaint to seek redress. A Magistrate’s Complaint is an application to a magistrate to look into a suspected criminal offence that you believe may have been committed against you, and give directions for further action.

When a Magistrate’s Complaint is made, the Magistrate could direct the police to make further inquiries into the complaint. The police may subsequently decide to launch formal investigations into the matter, and your case may then be referred to the AGC for public prosecution.

However, it is also possible that the police may decline to take up your case after inquiring into it. Nonetheless, if the Magistrate decides that there is still sufficient reason for the case to proceed, it could go to private prosecution, in which you will have to engage your own lawyer to represent you in conducting the prosecution. This differs from making a police report as explained above, where the matter may be referred to AGC for the Public Prosecutor to conduct the prosecution.

If the private prosecution succeeds and the stalker is convicted, the outcome would be no different compared to a situation where public prosecutors had conducted the prosecution. Therefore, the stalker would similarly be dealt with according to the law, and would be subject to the punishment meted out by the court.

Do note that a Magistrate’s Complaint can only be filed for offences that are punishable by up to 3 years’ imprisonment or a fine, or both. The offence of stalking under POHA satisfies this criterion since the penalty for stalking is a fine not exceeding $5,000, imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months, or both.

For more information on Magistrate’s Complaints, do refer to our article on Magistrate’s Complaints and private prosecutions in Singapore.

Filing a protection order

You may apply for a protection order against the stalker, which would prohibit the stalker from committing further acts of stalking against you. In order for a protection order to be granted against a stalker, three requirements must be satisfied:

The perpetrator has committed an act of harassment (in this case, stalking) under section 7 of POHA;
The perpetrator is likely to commit future acts of harassment; and
It is “just and equitable in all the circumstances” to grant a protection order.

In determining whether it is “just and equitable” in all the circumstances to grant a protection order, the court will consider factors such as the nature and severity of the harassment, the stalker’s motive, and the amount of emotional/psychological harm suffered by the victim.

With the establishment of the Protection of Harassment Court, which hears all criminal and civil cases under POHA, you can apply for a protection order online if your case satisfies the following conditions:

Your compensation claim is below $20,000
You are the only applicant (e.g. there are no co-claimants)
You are bringing a claim against 5 or fewer respondents (i.e., the persons against whom the order application is filed)
You are bringing a claim within 2 years of the harassment

Do note that if the protection order has been breached by the stalker who harasses you yet again, they would have committed an additional offence under POHA and you may file a police report on this basis. A breach of a protection order could further strengthen your case for police intervention.

Apart from making protection orders, the Protection from Harassment Court can also provide other remedies such as a Mandatory Treatment Order requiring the stalker to go for psychiatric treatment, or order damages which would require the stalker to pay monetary compensation to you.

For more information on protection orders specifically, do refer to our article on applying for a protection order for harassment in Singapore.

Civil action against the stalker

If you wish to obtain financial compensation from the stalker, you may sue him/her via a civil action by filing a claim in the Protection from Harassment Court. This would be relevant where you have suffered physical or mental distress as a result of the stalker’s actions and had to seek therapy or medical treatment as a result. You may wish to claim financial compensation for expenses incurred in the process.

You may apply for financial compensation of up to $20,000 in the Protection from Harassment Court via the Community Justice and Tribunals System (CJTS) under the simplified proceedings. For claims above $20,000, you may file a civil claim via eLitigation under the standard proceedings.

Do take note that the precise quantum of damages depends on the unique circumstances of your case and you may wish to consult a lawyer for an estimate of how much compensation you may be entitled to (and therefore whether you should file for compensation under the simplified or standard proceedings).

What Else Can Victims of Stalking Do to Protect Themselves/Ensure Their Safety Against Stalking?

Due to the nature of court processes and legal remedies, court orders may take some time to be obtained, and criminal trials could be drawn out for a long period of time. Hence, you may wish to consider taking the following practical steps in the interim to protect yourself from stalking:

Avoid divulging too much personal information online. Information regarding your whereabouts, such as your places of residence, work and education should be kept private as far as possible. You may also want to consider setting your social media account to private and limiting your “followers” or “friends” to trusted individuals. Block any suspicious accounts and refrain from engaging with unknown online users.
Stick to relatively crowded public places when you are out and about. If you suspect that you are being physically followed by someone, do not return home since you would be revealing your home address to the stalker. Additionally, do not attempt to lose the stalker by seeking refuge in deserted alleyways or quiet places. Instead, try to remain in a public and open space, and if you can, head to the nearest police station or seek help from nearby security personnel (e.g. in an MRT station).
Seek assistance from social service centres. If you do not wish to take legal action or simply require someone to talk to about your situation, you may wish to turn to support centres specialising in helping victims of stalking and harassment. Here are some of the centres that you can consider:
- SheCares@SCWO: This is a one-stop support centre for victims of online harms that can provide assistance if you are being stalked online via their helpline and textline. Among other services, they provide counselling for victims of online harms and, as well as pro bono legal assistance.
- AWARE Helpline: If you urgently need to talk to someone about your situation, you may contact the AWARE Helpline at 1800 777 5555 for a private and confidential consultation with trained volunteers and staff who can provide you with a listening ear and offer the requisite guidance. You can also call the hotline if you wish to make an appointment with AWARE’s counsellors or lawyers, who may be able to provide more specific assistance on your case.

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To conclude, finding out that you are being stalked can be extremely alarming and disruptive to your everyday life. Hence, being aware of the avenues of recourse that are available to you can help alleviate some of the anxiety you are facing and assist you in coming up with an action plan to put an end to the stalking as quickly as possible.

As detailed above, there are various remedies you can turn to (criminal and civil, monetary and non-monetary, legal and non-legal) depending on your specific situation.

If you require further guidance on this matter or are unsure of which remedy you should pursue, you may wish to obtain legal advice. A lawyer would be able to assess the unique facts and circumstances of your case and advise you on the best possible course of action to take. You may kickstart your search using our Find a Lawyer service.

Finally, it is crucial to note that if you believe yourself to be in imminent danger and could potentially be facing a threat to your life, you should call the police immediately at 999.