Teenager admits running scams involving Foodpanda refunds, sexual services and Gojek rides

• A teenager got Foodpanda to refund him for more than S$15,000 worth of orders
• He resold the alcohol he received and earned S$1,000 to S$2,000
• He also cheated men out of money by posing as women offering sexual services on online site Locanto
• He is set to be sentenced in November

SINGAPORE — Within several months, a 17-year-old managed to get about S$15,500 worth of groceries, alcohol and food for free from delivery firm Foodpanda, by claiming that his orders had not arrived and receiving refunds for them.

He also managed to cheat more than S$3,000 from men who had fallen prey to his fake online advertisements for sexual services, and cheated ride-hailing firm Gojek of about S$500.

The teenager, now 18, pleaded guilty on Tuesday (Sept 28) to four counts of cheating and accessing a computer programme to commit cheating. Five other similar charges will be taken into consideration for sentencing on Nov 3.

He cannot be named because he committed some of the offences when he was not yet 18. The Children and Young Persons Act bans the publication of the identities of such young offenders.

District Judge Kessler Soh called for reports to assess his suitability for probation and reformative training.

Probation does not result in a recorded criminal conviction and allows young offenders to continue with their education or employment while serving their sentences. Reformative training is a regimented rehabilitation programme for those under 21 who commit relatively serious crimes.

WHAT HE DID

The court heard that in January last year, the teenager hatched a scheme to cheat Foodpanda by ordering cooked food items to be delivered to his home in Jurong West.

After receiving the items, he told Foodpanda’s customer service that he had not received them, prompting the firm to refund the value of his orders to his bank account. 

He decided to switch to ordering groceries and alcohol from April onwards through Foodpanda.

He maintained the ruse on 81 occasions from January to August last year, evading detection by using 58 different email addresses and phone numbers.

He consumed and used the food and groceries himself, and earned about S$1,000 to S$2,000 by reselling the alcohol on Telegram chat groups and e-marketplace Carousell.

A fleet engagement manager from Foodpanda made a police report on Aug 21 last year after receiving feedback from riders about the possible refund scam.

Separately, around this period, the teenager contacted an unknown man he got to know through Telegram chat group SG Hitch, in order to find out how to get cheap Gojek rides.

When the man offered to teach him how to get cheap rides for S$500, the teenager agreed and met him at Jurong East MRT Station.

The man told him to register a Gojek account and book rides through the DBS PayLah mobile application, then cancel PayLah as a payment method and change his contact number to a random overseas mobile number so that he would not be charged for the rides.

The teenager managed to book 25 rides worth S$576 for himself and his friends using this method from Sept 19 to 21 last year. 

Every time Gojek blocked his account, he would start a new one with a new email address and phone number.

Gojek’s trust and safety manager made a police report saying that it had detected a spike in PayLah arrears, particularly those associated with certain mobile numbers.

POSED AS ‘CELINE’ AND ‘TRICIA’ 

Separately, the youth approached his Institute of Technical Education classmate — only identified as B1 in court documents — in February last year to ask if he was interested in earning fast cash. 

He claimed that he was selling goods online and asked the other boy for his bank account details, so that the “customers” could transfer money to it. 

The other boy agreed to this, keeping 5 per cent of the money he received as commission.

The accused then created a profile on classified sites Locanto, saying he was a 19-year-old girl named Celine who could provide sexual services for cash. 

A 27-year-old victim then contacted Celine on Telegram and said that he was interested to be friends with sexual benefits.

Posing as Celine, the accused told the victim to pay a deposit of S$100 before arranging to meet. The accused then asked him to make more payments for things such as condoms and birth control pills. 

The victim transferred S$2,186 in total before growing suspicious and filing a police report.

After this, the police called B1 in for questioning and froze the bank account. 

When B1 contacted the accused, he admitted that he was running a scam, and told B1 to lie that he had been recruited by an unknown person on Telegram to receive and transfer money in return for fast cash.

A few months after the account was unfrozen in June last year, the accused approached B1 again, asking if he was interested in running the scam together, this time offering a 20 per cent commission.

The accused then created another Locanto profile named Tricia and cheated a 22-year-old man into transferring about S$1,250 for sexual services. The victim made a police report in November last year.

In mitigation, the teenager’s lawyer Yap Gim Chuan said that these were his first offences and urged the court to give him another chance.

“The offences committed were serious but he realises he should put his energy and educational skills to better use. He is asking Your Honour for one more opportunity to be able to serve the society,” the defence counsel added.

District Judge Soh ordered for the youth to be remanded for a week for the reformative training report to be prepared, before he can be released on bail.

Those convicted of cheating can be jailed for up to 10 years and fined.