When a friend is in need, most of us would not hesitate to help in any way we can. Unfortunately, a 27-year-old woman in Singapore abused this trust and cheated her friends of S$600,000 to fund her breast enhancement surgery.
On Thursday (31 Mar), Alexandra Low Xing Ying was sentenced to 4 years and 4 months’ jail after pleading guilty to 20 cheating charges.
According to The Straits Times (ST), Low, a financial analyst, would reach out to friends and acquaintances under the pretence of needing money to ease her family’s financial burdens.
Among the reasons she fabricated was that she needed to help her uncle compensate his employees for accident fees.
After earning their sympathy, Low managed to receive loans that ranged between S$300 and S$121,500 from each victim.
The largest amount apparently came from a male friend who initially gave her S$8,500 to cover an “unpaid loan” her family had offered a third party, noted ST.
But as Low subsequently asked for more money and he kept giving in return, the amount snowballed to a whopping S$121,500.
She allegedly used similar tricks on her other victims, cheating up to 75 of them so that she wouldn’t have to obtain large sums of money.
ST reported that Low used the money to pay for regular breast enhancement treatments between 31 May 2018 and 13 Oct 2019.
The sessions reportedly commenced after she had gone for a free trial at Tokyo Bust Express at Regency House.
Eventually, Low’s victims attempted to get their money back from her, to no avail.
She reportedly came up with excuses to delay repayment and even reported to the police that she had been a victim of a scam, and had lost S$348,000 in investments.
To finally hold Low accountable, some of her victims resorted to creating a WhatsApp group, stated ST.
One of them then contacted her and they went to Bishan Neighbourhood Police Centre, where she admitted to scamming over 70 people.
Police later arrested Low in her home on 15 Nov 2019. By then, she had reportedly cheated 75 people of nearly S$600,000, of which only S$128,151 has been recovered.
On Thursday (31 Mar), Low pleaded guilty to 20 charges of cheating, which involved money amounting to S$453,600. The court considered 57 other cheating charges pertaining to the remaining amount of money during her sentencing.
They eventually sentenced Low to four years and four months’ in jail.
Even though Low managed to obtain a huge sum of money by cheating her friends, it cannot make up for the bridges she burned while trying to do so.
While there’s likely no chance of rekindling the friendships, we hope that her victims could at least recover some of the money they lost.
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Featured image adapted from lee lee on Flickr and Asterfolio on Unsplash.
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