This is a cautionary tale for people looking for love on the Interwebz.
When cleaner Lim Sim Hong, 56, met Laura Smith online, she told him she wanted to open an art gallery in Singapore and sent him $109,160 to buy property here.
But Smith — who turned out to have obtained the money through a bank fraud in the United States — later asked him to transfer the amount to a bank account in Hong Kong.
Lim refused, and when Smith sued him, he said he had already spent the entire sum and presented an Excel spreadsheet to back up his claim.
“Lim became infatuated with Laura, and he later perceived that love soon blossomed between them,” reports The Straits Times, quoting the man’s lawyer. “Lim could not wait to meet Laura in person as she had planned, but she did not come. He had thought that their relationship would work out.”
Investigations later revealed that Lim had not, in fact, spent all the money.
“$85,500 was recovered as a result of the raid, and Lim further made restitution of $14,209.75, bringing the total amount recovered to date to $99,709.75,” reports Channel NewsAsia.
For missapropriating the funds (and looking for love in the wrong place?) Lim has been sentenced to 11 months in jail.
Photo: Scientific American
