Woman transfers $400,000 to man she met on dating app, he then becomes uncontactable

A woman was cheated out of $400,000 by a man whom she met on a dating app and soon developed a romantic relationship with.

He introduced her to investing and asked for money on the pretext of investing and generating good returns.

Since June, she has made multiple transactions to him amounting to about $400,000.

The man then became uncontactable.

On Aug 15 at about 4.20pm, the police received a report from her about what happened.

Through follow-up investigations, officers from Central Police Division established the 29-year-old man’s identity and arrested him on Thursday (Aug 17).

His bank accounts and trading accounts were frozen. An electronic device was also seized for the purpose of investigation.

Police investigations are ongoing.

The offence of cheating carries an imprisonment term of up to 10 years and a fine.

Last month, the police said at least 498 people lost a total of at least $25.5 million to investment scams since June.

Some were contacted by scammers through apps such as Instagram, Facebook, Coffee Meets Bagel and Tantan.

Scammers would build rapport with victims over time to gain their trust before introducing “investment opportunities”. By then, victims were inclined to believe scammers and follow their instructions in conducting transactions under the pretext of their “investments”.

Victims would generally receive small profits initially and believe their “investments” were genuine.

They would only realise they had been scammed when they could not withdraw their “profits” or could no longer contact the scammers.