3 men to be charged with cheating company over false purchase of S$600,000 luxury watch

SINGAPORE — Three men aged 29 to 32 will be charged on Friday (May 26) after they allegedly deceived a payment processing company into making payment of more than S$600,000 for a purported luxury watch purchase.

The ruse was uncovered after the company made a police report about a suspicious transaction, when a man asked for a refund of the same sum to his debit card for the watch purchase.

The police said in a press statement on Thursday that they received a report by the company on Aug 25, 2021.

Initial investigations found that sometime between June and July 2021, a man — with the help of two accomplices — purportedly deceived the payment company into transferring 14 payments to a supposed seller of the luxury watch.

After the payments were made, the buyer then claimed that the watch was never delivered and sought a full refund from the payment company.

However, no watch was ever bought or sold in this case, the police told TODAY.

Further investigations later revealed that the payments made by the payment company were to a shell company that did not appear to have other business activities.

“Through follow-up investigations, officers from the Commercial Affairs Department established the identities of the men and arrested them on Sept 2, 2021,” the police said.

The 29-year-old man will be charged with cheating, which carries a jail term of up to three years and a fine if he is convicted.

His two accomplices, aged 31 and 32, will be charged with engaging in a conspiracy to cheat the payment company, which carries a jail term of up to 10 years and a fine.

The police added that they take a serious view of cheating crimes and offenders will be dealt with severely in accordance with the law.