Woman scammed 10 people of $880k: Victims include hubby's ex-colleague, lover's family and her godma

Shaffiq Alkhatib
The Straits Times
Oct 12, 2023

Over six years, a serial con woman cheated 10 people – including her husband’s former colleague and men she deceived in love scams – of more than $880,000 in total.

Among other things, Joceyln Kwek Sok Koon had also worked with one Lai Sze Yin, with whom she had an extra-marital affair, to cheat his parents and younger sister of cash.

Lai, then 28, was earlier sentenced to 15 months’ jail in June 2021, and his mother told police that she had been scammed of her entire savings.

Kwek, 49, who committed some of her offences when she was out on bail, pleaded guilty on Thursday to seven charges including multiple counts of cheating.

The scammer, who was then a mother of two, and Lai first met in July 2016 when he delivered a parcel to her home. They became a couple the following month.

She later pretended to be a woman called Rachel Lam, and Lai told his parents that he was dating this fictitious figure.

Kwek, who was then in the business of selling bags, would often speak to Lai’s mother over the phone while posing as Rachel.

Over time, his family grew to trust the woman even though they had never met her in person.

On or around May 22, 2017, Kwek told Lai that she needed $8,000 to fund her business.

The couple then hatched a plan to cheat his mother by claiming that they needed a loan to purportedly buy a car. The elderly woman later handed her son $9,000.

On Oct 1, 2017, Kwek instigated Lai to cheat his father in a purported investment opportunity with a bank that would supposedly allow the elderly man to earn 21 per cent interest on the principal amount.

His parents and sister were later duped of $150,454 in total. Soon after, the elderly couple pursued Kwek for their investment returns and Lai’s mother finally alerted the police on Oct 30, 2018.

Separately, in 2017, Kwek e-mailed security firm Certis Cisco over certain issues that were not disclosed in court documents and the matter was forwarded to a 35-year-old male employee.

The pair started interacting with each other, and he eventually fell in love with her even though they had never met in person. However, Kwek had never liked the man.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Phoebe Tan said: “To keep up the charade, the accused sent various photos to the victim, claiming that those were images of her. The victim did a reverse Google search on the images and found out that they were pictures of a Korean blogger.

“He confronted the accused about the pictures and they had an argument. He nonetheless maintained his ‘relationship’ with the accused.”

Kwek later asked him for money on the pretext of helping a friend called “Jolene”. She later duped him of nearly $48,000 in total.

In an unrelated case in November 2017, Kwek’s 73-year-old godmother handed her more than 50 pieces of jewellery – mainly family heirlooms – worth over $50,000 to be cleaned.

Kwek then pawned the valuables for $48,250.

Court documents did not disclose when Kwek was arrested, but she was released on bail in 2020.

In March that year, she told her husband’s 66-year-old colleague that she wanted to borrow money from him, claiming that she purportedly needed to pay legal fees to “claim her inheritance”.

Kwek then cheated the Briton of nearly $340,000. She also lied to the man, claiming that she could help him in his application to become a Singapore permanent resident (PR).

The man later lost his job and fell into debt.

The prosecutor said: “His mental health was badly affected as a result of the accused’s scams. He faced investigations by (the authorities) for overstaying as well as he trusted the accused to handle his (PR) application, which she had never filed from the outset.”

Separately, Kwek was involved in another love scam and cheated a 39-year-old man into handing over nearly $104,000.

Between October 2021 and April 2022, she also cheated a 33-year-old woman of nearly $180,000 after claiming that she needed loans for various reasons, including paying for some purported insurance premiums.

Kwek’s mitigation and sentencing will take place on Oct 31.