Man gets jail for cheating more than 20 people of S$20,000 in hotel booking scam using Carousell

SINGAPORE — For about three months in late 2021, Seow Ren Wei tricked at least 20 people into handing over money to reserve hotel rooms at Resorts World Sentosa and Marina Bay Sands, among other places. 

However, he had no such hotel rooms to offer and he did not make any booking after the victims responded to his advertisements on e-commerce marketplace Carousell. Payments ranging from S$400 to more than S$2,000 each were made to him.

The total sum Seow obtained from his victims was about S$23,000.

On Monday (Dec 19), the 28-year-old was sentenced to 15 months in jail after he pleaded guilty to seven cheating charges, with another 17 taken into consideration in sentencing.

Court documents showed that Seow used various accounts to post listings on Carousell offering hotel rooms.

At least 20 people contacted him and made full payments to his PayNow accounts to book these rooms. Seow would then stop responding to them after he had received the money.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Tan Yanying told the court that Seow also approached some of the victims again after they made payment for their bookings, to borrow money from them to supposedly pay off cancellation fees by other persons who made bookings through him.

“He asked these victims to give him loans of at least S$2,000, which they did. To date, these loans also have not been repaid.”

One victim was cheated on two separate occasions of about S$1,000 each time, while another was cheated between S$1,000 and S$2,000 each on four occasions in October and November last year. 

Court documents did not specify why these victims made multiple payments.

Besides suffering financial losses, some victims had made room bookings through Seow to celebrate important special occasions and had to scramble for alternative arrangements at the last minute, the prosecution said.

In seeking a jail term of 13 to 15 months in total, DPP Tan noted the need for a general deterrence given the rise in e-commerce scams recently.

DPP Tan also said that although Seow had made restitution of about S$1,000 to some victims, these were made not using his own cash but from the money other victims lent him.  

She added that this showed a lack of genuine remorse on his part.

In pleading leniency, defence counsel Audrey Koo said that her client was the sole breadwinner for his family and lives with his ex-wife and child.

He also has parents who are ill. As the only son, Seow bore the responsibility of caring for them and taking them to medical appointments.

Seow works as a private-hire driver and could not afford to make restitution for the remainder of the sum he cheated, the defence lawyer added.

For the cheating offences, Seow could have been jailed for up to 10 years and fined.