Last Thursday (5 Nov), Marcus Ang Yi Sheng was sentenced to two years in jail and fined S$15,000.
The 27-year-old Singaporean created profiles of fictional women on dating platforms and cheated men out of their money through rigged mahjong games.
CNA reported that Ang pleaded guilty to eight charges.
This included multiple counts of conspiring to cheat, criminal intimidation and gambling-related offences.
The court also considered another 33 charges during sentencing.
By Ang’s estimate, the group involved in the scheme earned about S$100,000 across multiple games.
In April 2024, Ang first conceptualised the plan.
He made dating profiles of fictional women on dating sites like OkCupid and Tinder, along with Telegram profiles.
Interested parties contacted Ang via Telegram, where he would invite them to play mahjong while catfishing as the fictional women.
After they scheduled a game, Ang directed a female co-conspirator to pose as the woman in the dating profile and host the session.
The games were hosted at various locations, including a Housing Development Board (HDB) flat and SAFRA Toa Payoh.
Each game would involve a victim playing with three co-conspirators, while the accomplices served specific roles. They posed as friends or siblings, or sometimes strangers.
As a reserve player, a co-conspirator would secretly observe the victim’s playing style and convey information to other players. This effectively reduced the likelihood of the victim winning.
Other players contributed by preventing the victim from winning, forming winning hands or throwing tiles that the accomplices needed to win the game.
Ang said that the scheme had a 99% success rate for the conspirators.
Source: MS News
Ang disseminated information to the co-conspirators via a WhatsApp group called “Sales appointment updates” and taught them how to play in each designated position.
He was in charge of pooling the winnings and distributing the shares to the conspirators. Each conspirator earned a commission of between S$300 and S$500 per session.
In 2024, there were at least 28 victims in 28 games. Ang was assigned to be a player in 18 games, of which 12 eventually took place and in which he participated.
On 1 Jun 2024, a victim was told to pay S$26,000 after losing a game. However, he refused.
After another victim was pressured to pay the same amount, Ang threatened to visit his workplace and report him to the police for raping one of the accomplices.
This victim later filed a police report against Ang.
Ang faced other allegations of attempted assault.
According to The Straits Times, he allegedly carried one of his accomplices, Belinda Chee Yan Lin, to the balcony of her condominium and threatened to throw her down from the eighth floor.
In June 2024, Ang was arrested and released on bail. However, he was reoffended and remanded.
After receiving bail a second time, he reoffended again, forcing the court to remand him once more.
The prosecution sought to give Ang a prison sentence of 25 to 27 months, with a fine of S$15,000.
Representing Ang was Mr John Koh from Avalon Law. He pleaded for a jail term of 19 to 21 months, with a fine of S$15,000.
Mr Koh maintained that his client had not used a weapon against Chee.
Each charge of conspiring to cheat could have carried a prison term of up to 10 years and a fine.
For unlawful gambling, the court could have jailed Ang for up to six months, fined up to S$10,000, or both.
Organising unlawful gambling can result in a prison sentence of up to seven years and a fine of up to S$500,000.
In October, accomplice Olivia Chin Hui Zhen was sentenced to eight months’ jail and a fine of S$3,000. The 31-year-old was the first of the group to plead guilty.
On 5 Nov, a second accomplice named Chloe Low Zhiyi was also convicted.
The 23-year-old was previously in a relationship with Ang. Low will be sentenced in December.
The ruling on cases involving Low, Chee and five other people is pending.
Also read: 16-year-old in S’pore catfishes secondary school classmate, makes him perform lewd acts
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Featured image by MS News (left) and Teresa Wang via Pexels (right). For illustration purposes only.