Love scammers enjoy preying on innocent and vulnerable Singaporeans. One Singaporean, however, wasn’t as ‘innocent’ as her love scammer would’ve predicted.
63-year-old Christina Cheong Yoke Lin kept $50,000 that an online love scammer had transferred to her account for her own use.
Cheong, a part-time English teacher, met Collins on an online dating platform called Badoo in 2017.
Collins convinced Cheong to allow him to deposit $50,030 into her bank account, according to a report by The Straits Times.
Collins requested Cheong to help him transfer the money to “one of his boss’ associates” as his personal account was frozen by ‘Keppel’.
The $50,030 that Cheong received was in fact from another woman that Collins had scammed. Upon receiving the money, Collins gave Cheong instructions on how to withdraw it, but Cheong paid him no heed.
Ultimately, Cheong went MIA on Collins by repeatedly ignoring his calls and voice messages, and even blocking him on WhatsApp.
While Cheong kept the $50,000, she found herself in a tricky situation with another love scammer in Malaysia.
Cheong was in love with a man, ‘Mark Anthony’, who claimed that he was detained by the Malaysian authorities. Cheong transferred $31,000 to supposedly free him.
The scamming didn’t stop there.
Another scammer made Cheong transfer $19,000 into various foreign bank accounts with the promise of giving her $80,000 in return for her help.
After these series of scams, Cheong only had $1,000 left, which she used for her personal expenditures.
On 22 Sep 2017, a report made by one of Collins’ victims led police to discover e-threads of transfers that led back to Cheong.
Cheong received a mandatory treatment order (MTO) as her lawyer claimed that her actions stemmed from her untreated depression.
Currently out on a $25,000 bail, Cheong will be due in court on 26 June. She faces the possibility of a 2-year imprisonment for misappropriating money.
Love may be blind but that doesn’t mean that the law will turn a blind eye to any criminal activities.
If you or anyone you know may have encountered any scams, be sure to alert the authorities immediately. You can find out more about scams in Singapore and how to seek help on SCAM ALERT.
Featured image from The Straits Times.
False claims include that GCB transactions occur without government checks on beneficial owners' identities.
The suspect casually watched as the woman became consumed by flames.
The thief left the wallet and more than RM200 behind, presumably to mislead the 72-year-old…
Such poor sportsmanship.
Earlier this year, three managers were found to have made manual updates on a customer’s…
On the other hand, some said they'd prefer sitting next to a massive dog than…