Woman cheated of over $68k by BF she met on Tinder, realises she's not his only victim

Shaffiq Alkhatib
The Straits Times
Feb 21, 2019

A woman who was cheated of more than $68,000 in 2016 by her then boyfriend found out last year she was not his only victim.

The man, Malaysian Peter Aw Boo Cheong, 47, had admitted to 14 counts of cheating involving nearly $250,000 on Nov 28 last year.

After reading about Aw's case in The Straits Times, the 50-year-old Singaporean woman made a police report two days later.

On Thursday (Feb 21), Aw, who is jobless, pleaded guilty to three counts of cheating involving $57,250. The woman was one of six victims.

Police investigations showed that Aw, a Singapore permanent resident, and the woman started a romantic relationship after meeting on dating platform Tinder in 2016.

Aw called himself "Daniel" and claimed that he was an experienced silver trader.

He told her about an "investment opportunity" which he claimed would reap high profits.

Said Deputy Public Prosecutor Tan Hsiao Tien: "In the accused's dealings with the victim, he led her to believe that he was a credible and trustworthy person who had valuable information about investment, and would help her to invest in silver for her best interests.

"In fact, the accused was never a trader and has never invested in foreign currencies and commodities. The accused did not use any of the monies for the purported investment."

His bogus investment pitch led to the woman handing over $68,250 to him between May and June 2016.

Aw used a similar method to cheat five other women between August 2016 and July 2017.

Four are Singaporeans while the fifth is an Indonesian who lives in Singapore. They are aged between 39 and 48 years.

Aw has so far made a restitution of only $500.

DPP Tan told the court that Aw has a history of committing similar offences and urged District Judge Chay Yuen Fatt to sentence him to at least five years' jail.

The court also heard that Aw had been jailed for 14 months in 2013 after cheating four women he had met on dating websites of $55,000.

He is out on $40,000 bail and is expected to be sentenced on Tuesday (Feb 26) for cheating the six women.

For each count of cheating, he can be jailed for up to 10 years and fined.