Clinic employee jailed, fined for cheating 23 people who wanted to buy face masks on Carousell

SINGAPORE — Over a few days, a young woman cheated nearly two dozen people of S$1,476 while they were looking to get face masks on e-marketplace Carousell.

Eunice Anico Liwanag, a front-desk executive at a radiology clinic, had exploited the surge in demand for masks during the Covid-19 pandemic to run her scam, despite having a job of her own, District Judge Prem Raj said on Tuesday (June 2).

He sentenced the 24-year-old to eight weeks’ jail and a S$3,000 fine. 

The Singapore permanent resident pleaded guilty to four charges of cheating and for making a false police report, with another 20 similar charges taken into consideration for sentencing.

She has since made full restitution to the 23 victims.

The court heard that Liwanag ran her scam from Jan 28 to 31. She changed her Carousell user name three times to avoid detection by the authorities.

When the victims transferred money to her for the masks, they did not receive what they bought. 

On one occasion, a victim paid S$75 to Liwanag for three boxes of masks. When asked if she had four boxes of child-sized masks, Liwanag said that she “coincidentally” had four boxes left to sell at S$80.

After numerous police reports were made against her, Liwanag filed a police report herself, saying that she had detected unusual money transfers into her account.

When a police officer contacted her, she denied his queries about whether she was involved in unlicensed moneylending businesses that could have led to the transfers. She added that she had provided her account number only for online shopping purposes, but did not specify to whom.

The officer then advised her to ask her bank for a fund reversal, in order to return the money to the “rightful owner”.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Matthew Choo said that at the time, Liwanag knew she had committed cheating offences and lied to the police to divert attention and suspicion away from herself.

He also said that she had targeted a “high number of victims” in a short span of time, getting them to transfer sums of S$25 to S$155 each.

While passing the sentence, District Judge Prem said that even though restitution was made “fairly early” and the individual sums involved were low, Liwanag had exploited several victims using an internet platform.

“Worse still, there was exploitation of demand for face masks, all brought about by the pandemic. I think nobody, no right-thinking person, should exploit such a situation. While I tried to understand why you committed this, the fact is you were gainfully employed,” he added.

A mobile phone and face mask were seized from Liwanag during investigations and the judge ordered that these be forfeited.

Liwanag, who was not represented by a lawyer, had nothing to say in mitigation.

For each charge of cheating, she could have been jailed up to 10 years and fined.

For making a false police report, she could have been jailed up to two years, fined, or both.

CLARIFICATION: In an earlier version of this report, it was stated that Eunice Anico Liwanag was a diagnostic radiologist. The Attorney-General’s Chambers has clarified that at the time of the offence, she was a front-desk executive at a radiology clinic.