Mandatory treatment order for woman who scammed a fraudster, before being scammed herself

SINGAPORE — A 63-year-old woman who tricked a scammer into giving her S$50,000 was sentenced to an 18-month mandatory treatment order on Thursday (Aug 22).

Christina Cheong Yoke Lin, a part-time English teacher who later ended up being scammed herself, was diagnosed by a psychiatrist with major depressive disorder at the time of her offences in 2017.

A mandatory treatment order is a community sentencing option offered to offenders suffering from mental conditions that contributed to the offence. 

Prosecutors, who had argued that Cheong was a “manipulative offender” whose actions were “deliberate and calculated”, had sought three months’ jail for her, but District Judge Ng Peng Hong said that rehabilitation outweighed the principles of retribution and deterrence in this case.

Deputy Chief Prosecutor Leong Wing Tuck told the court that they will be filing an appeal against the sentence.

Cheong had pleaded guilty in May to one charge of dishonest misappropriation of property, while another charge of possessing another person’s benefits from criminal conduct was taken into consideration for sentencing.

WHAT HAPPENED

Cheong got to know a scammer identified only as Collins in early 2017 through an online dating application. He wanted to trick her into moving S$50,000 for him from Singapore to Malaysia so that the money could not be traced back to him.

She lied to him, saying she was in debt and had lost everything, and Collins replied that he loved her and wanted to help.

That month, he suggested an arrangement for money to be deposited into her account, which involved his "boss' associates". He said she could withdraw the funds and take it to Johor Baru with their help.

Unknown to her, Collins was a scammer himself, and was trying to cheat another Singaporean woman through an online love scam. He told the other woman to transfer about S$50,000 to Cheong’s DBS bank account.

Cheong has since made full restitution to her.

After the woman had transferred the sum into Cheong's account, Collins told Cheong to withdraw the money. He said that one of his boss’ associates would call her and take the money from her.

He also asked Cheong for details of her second bank account, so that his boss could transfer S$26,000 to her and give her S$1,000 from the transaction. 

About 10 days later, after ignoring his repeated queries and instructions, she blocked him on the phone.

She ended up using part of the S$50,000 for her own expenses, but was ultimately tricked by other scammers.

One of them, identified only as Mark Anthony, was a man with whom Cheong was in love.

Mark Anthony told Cheong that he was being detained by the Malaysian authorities for having too much money, and that an immigration officer, known only as Jasmin, could help him. 

On Jasmin's instructions, Cheong transferred S$31,000 to a Malaysian CIMB bank account.

In another instance, Cheong also transferred S$19,000 to various foreign bank accounts. 

A scammer called Chong Lee told her to do this, having promised to give Cheong S$800,000 for her help as part of an inheritance scam.