Singapore Woman Used Ruses To Cheat S$880,000 Out Of 10 Victims
Joceyln Kwek, a married Singapore woman, utilised many lies to cheat ten people out of over S$880,000 in total.
Her victims over six years included her extra-marital boyfriends and her own elderly godmother.
Kwek even got one of her boyfriends to cheat his family’s life savings into her hands.
On Thursday (12 Oct), the con woman pleaded guilty in court to seven charges.
Woman builds trust with boyfriend’s family to cheat them
Joceyln Kwek Sok Koon, now 49, allegedly began her serial cheating in 2016, when she dated 24-year-old Lai Sze Yin despite being married and a mother of two.
She created a false persona as ‘Rachel Lam’, a young student at the National University of Singapore (NUS), reported The Straits Times (ST).
As Lam, she constantly interacted with Lai’s family over the phone and even bought them gifts. Thus, the family eventually came to trust ‘Lam’ despite never physically meeting.
In May 2017, Kwek and Lai conspired to cheat Lai’s elderly mother. The unknowing victim handed them a S$9,000 loan to buy a car when the money instead went to Kwek’s business.
In Oct 2017, Kwek got Lai to cheat his father of money through a false investment opportunity that would allegedly earn him lots of interest. Kwek duped Lai’s parents and sister of S$150,454 through this.
Source: Eduardo Soares on Unsplash
Eventually, they pursued their promised investment returns and grew suspicious when ‘Lam’ could not be contacted for a year, reported Channel NewsAsia (CNA).
They finally contacted the police on 30 Oct 2018. The court sentenced Lai to 15 months in jail in June 2021.
Singapore woman went on to cheat 2 others in love with her
Lai was not Kwek’s only extra-marital boyfriend, however.
In 2017, she began interactions with a 35-year-old Certis Cisco employee, who fell in love with her. She allegedly sent various photos that she claimed were of her.
Her victim, however, searched the images on Google and found them to belong to a Korean blogger. This caused an argument between them, yet, the man remained in a relationship with Kwek.
Kwek then requested money under the pretence of helping a friend. She ended up cheating her victim of nearly S$48,000 between Sep 2017 and Mar 2019. He eventually filed a police report in June 2021 after realising that Kwek perpetuated a love scam.
A third love victim was a 39-year-old salesman, who contacted Kwek on WhatsApp as a company representative. In this instance, Kwek posed as a wealthy woman and showed off false images of her property.
Source: Adem AY on Unsplash
Just like the previous victim, she sent a photo of someone else, claiming to be her. Once more, she made a mistake by screenshotting the entire profile to him instead of the photo.
In spite of this, the victim entered a romantic relationship with her in 2021. When she asked for money, he readily sent it to her, even taking loans from his family and friends.
Kwek cheated him of S$103,710 while on bail from previous cheating charges and gave him a fake job offer. Her victim quit his previous job and fell into financial difficulties when it never materialised.
Pretended to have leukaemia to dupe victim
Another of Kwek’s victims included her husband’s ex-colleague, a 66-year-old British man.
In March 2020, she requested money to claim her inheritance, even drafting letters with the help of lawyers to back up her hoax.
Not comfortable with stopping there, Kwek cheated the Briton several more times, including pretending to have leukaemia. He lost S$338,600 in total to her schemes.
Kwek also promised she could act as a sponsor to fund his Permanent Resident (PR) application. To avoid her ruse unravelling, she told him not to contact the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) or Ministry of Manpower (MOM) lest they deport him.
In Jan 2021, the victim lost his job and his employment pass was cancelled. Although he was to depart to the United Kingdom, Kwek told him that his PR application was approved.
When asked for proof, Kwek went so far as to forge ICA documents. The victim fell into debt and faced ICA investigations for overstaying in Singapore. His mental health also tanked as a result of the con, noted ST.
Pawned off godmother’s family heirlooms
Kwek also targeted her own 73-year-old godmother, by asking for jewellery for cleaning.
Source: Nataliya Melnychuk on Unsplash, for illustration purposes only
Her unsuspecting godmother handed over more than 50 pieces of jewellery, mostly family heirlooms, which Kwek pawned off for S$48,250 to settle her debts.
When her godmother pleaded for the jewellery back, she allegedly created excuses. Eventually, the elderly woman threatened her with a police report.
This forced Kwek to hand over a few pieces of jewellery not belonging to her godmother, as well as several thousand dollars.
Separately, Kwek also cheated a woman out of nearly S$180,000, claiming she needed loans.
Pleaded guilty in court
Yesterday (12 Oct), Kwek pleaded guilty to seven charges including cheating, with the prosecutor calling her a manipulative liar.
Her mitigation and sentencing is set for 31 Oct.
In a similar case, a Singapore woman cheated an intellectually disabled man of S$39,000.
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Featured image by MS News and adapted from Eduardo Soares on Unsplash, for illustration purposes only.
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