Woman posed as MOM employee, cheated 2 victims of over $3.5k with fake job opportunities

A 31-year-old woman allegedly duped victims into making payments of over $3,500 by posing as a Ministry of Manpower (MOM) employee and offering them fake job opportunities in Singapore.

The police said they received a report at around 2.30am on November 1, 2020, that a woman had impersonated as a MOM employee and deceived victims to make payments on the pretext of offering job opportunities.

Through ground enquiries, officers from Woodlands Police Division established the woman's identity and subsequently arrested her on April 14 this year.

"Preliminary investigations revealed that the woman is believed to have cheated at least two victims of more than $3,500," said the police in a statement on Wednesday (June 2).

"During the course of investigations, the woman had purportedly provided false information to the police officers, with the intention of creating a false impression that she was also a victim."

The woman will be charged on June 3 with cheating and providing false information to a public servant.

The offence of cheating carries a jail term of up to ten years and a fine.

The offence of giving any information which he or she knows to be false to a public servant carries a jail term of up to one year and/or a fine of up to $5,000.

The police also advised the members of the public on the following:

1. If it is too good to be true, it probably is. Do not accept dubious job offers that offer lucrative returns for minimal effort;

2. If you are randomly invited into a messaging application group chat that you suspect is promoting a scam, report the group chat using the in-app function immediately to prevent others from falling prey to scams; and

3. If possible, always verify the authenticity of the job with the official websites or sources.

Those with information related to such scams may call the police hotline at 1800-255-0000 or submit it online at www.police.gov.sg/iwitness.

For urgent police assistance, please dial '999'.

For more information on scams, members of the public can visit www.scamalert.sg or call the anti-scam hotline at 1800-722-6688.