Man cheated S$500,000 from 62 people through Facebook investment scams

SINGAPORE — To feed his gambling habit, Alvin Ker Jia Jun came up with a series of fake investment schemes using his personal Facebook account.

From 2017 to 2018, he swindled a total of S$503,988 from 62 unsuspecting victims, some of them his friends or acquaintances.

One acquaintance “invested” about S$72,000 and received only about S$17,000 in return.

On Monday (Aug 19), Ker, 31, pleaded guilty in the State Courts to 40 counts of cheating. For sentencing in October, 95 other similar charges will be taken into consideration.

He has since made restitution of S$100,246.

HOW HE CHEATED THEM

The court heard that Ker developed a gambling habit in 2017. After getting lucky and needing more capital, he came up with a plan to convince others to give him more money to gamble.

He made various posts on his Facebook account, seeking investors for non-existent schemes with attractive guaranteed rates of return.

People could choose a one-year or three-month scheme, where Ker promised they could double their investment capital within that period — with the capital invested guaranteed.

After posting on Facebook, Ker asked his friends to help share the post on their own social media networks to gain more visibility and publicity, Deputy Public Prosecutor Kelvin Chong told the court.

Once his victims contacted him, Ker tricked them into believing the investment was real by explaining how it would happen. These included:

• Investing in an educational institution

• Investing in an opportunity related to the SkillsFuture Credit scheme, which gives Singaporeans aged 25 and above S$500 in credits to attend courses by approved training providers

• Using the money to provide loans to gamblers at casinos with interest

• Investing in claims made by small- and medium-sized enterprises with government companies

• Using the money to invest in casinos

Those who fell prey transferred to him sums of money, which Ker would then use to gamble at various casinos here and overseas.

When he won, he would transfer money to some of his clients to keep the scheme going.

In order to inspire confidence in the scheme and get more people involved, he also posted screenshots of the bank transfer on his Facebook page. His friends and victims shared these posts as well.

After some time, however, he began losing heavily at gambling and grew desperate. More victims came into the picture when he asked his friends to look for more investors.

In order to placate the initial victims who were asking for their returns, Ker gave them excuses — for example, that he reached his transfer limit. He eventually lost all the money his victims handed him.

Ker was arrested on March 5 last year on his return from a gambling trip to Vietnam.

For each cheating charge, he could be jailed up to 10 years and fined.