Liew Yii Tern is accused of being part of a syndicate that fleeced men by falsely promising them sexual services. In the first five months of this year, more than 500 police reports on such scams have been lodged, with victims losing more than S$1.25 million.
Prosecutors said yesterday the three charges pressed against Liew were only the “tip of the iceberg”.
Two of his charges stated that Liew helped someone called “Lao Ban”, or “boss” in Mandarin, to dupe men into thinking they were paying for sexual services. It was not mentioned in court how the victims got to know the women. It is also not known if more people will be charged.
In one case, Liew allegedly allowed his bank account to be used to receive S$38,600 from one victim. In the other, he picked up the ATM card of another man whose account had been used to receive about S$2,600.
If convicted, he faces up to 10 years’ jail and a fine for each charge of abetment to cheat.
The third charge was for dishonestly receiving a stolen ATM card last week at Block 712A, Ang Mo Kio Central. If proven, the offence is punishable with jail of up to five years and a fine.
Liew, who was arrested on Tuesday, will be remanded for a week and could be brought out for investigation.
In a media statement on Wednesday, the police had said the “credits for sex” scam involves women befriending male victims on social media, such as through WeChat and other messaging apps.
The men would be asked to buy online shopping credits or purchasing cards, which are stored value cards used to make payments on websites, in exchange for a date or sexual services. The victims would then buy the purchasing cards through AXS machines, and send images of the receipts together with the personal identification numbers (PIN) to designated email accounts for the culprits to claim the credits.
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