An enterprising but evil teenager has been arrested after running scams that left more than 25 victims in its wake and an estimated $14,000 garnered through bamboozling means.
The 19-year-old man cheated his victims through the guise of online gaming credit purchases. How it would work is that unsuspecting victims would respond to job offers set up on Carousell and Facebook by the suspect, who’ll receive their handphone numbers.
The suspect would then use their contact numbers to purchase online gaming credits. He told them to acknowledge the messages sent to their phones about the purchase, assuring them that they would be reimbursed, and the credits erased. The victims would then forward the confirmation SMS with a pin code to the scammer — which he would then sell off for profit.
The victims obviously got shocked when they realised the massive amount of phone bills they’ve accumulated for inadvertently agreeing to purchase the gaming credits. Such success was this scam that the suspect cheated $14,000 from his victims.
The Commercial Affairs Department collaborated with the Technology Crime Investigation Branch of the Criminal Investigation Department, and managed to establish his identity. He was arrested on Monday afternoon along Kay Siang Road, and officers seized several mobile phones, SIM cards, bank tokens and cash amounting to $7,500.
If convicted for the offence of cheating, he faces up to 10 years in prison and a fine.
