Tinder cheat jailed for swindling four women of more than S$30,000

SINGAPORE — He would chat up young women on the popular dating app Tinder, before telling them he was in Japan on a business trip and needed money.

Using this ruse, Eng How Khiang managed to cheat four women of S$33,500. He would get them to transfer money to his wife’s POSB bank account, which was under his control.

On Friday (Feb 22), the 44-year-old was jailed for one year and seven months after pleading guilty to 10 charges of cheating, with another 16 charges taken into consideration for sentencing.

The court heard that Eng befriended his victims on Tinder sometime in 2017. They cannot be named due to a court gag order to protect their identities.

He began chatting with one of them in February that year, introducing himself as “Aaron Chong Kangen”.

He subsequently told the 25-year-old woman that he was in Japan and had lost his wallet there. She then transferred him a total of S$18,900 on seven occasions over one-and-a-half weeks in March.

Eng said he would return the money, but stopped contacting her sometime around July 13.

He used a similar modus operandi on his other victims. Introducing himself as “Leo” or “Leo Chen Wei Xiang” on Tinder, he told them stories of being financially strapped while in Japan.

These included being hospitalised with a bacterial infection, or losing his wallet and needing money to treat his client to lunch. He would then stop contacting them shortly after.

Eng has since made partial restitution of S$1,400.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Grace Goh sought at least 19 months’ imprisonment for Eng, saying he gave various excuses to his victims and got them to transfer money for “his own personal expenditure”.

Eng’s lawyer, Mr Low Woon Ming, told the court that his client committed the offences to pay for his mother’s cancer treatment, which had strained his finances. Mr Low also argued that the scam was “not elaborate”.

In passing the sentence, District Judge Mathew Joseph said: “I find your actions quite shameless. You went on Tinder and cultivated these ladies — not just one, but four, and carried out your actions over a sustained period. You were persistent and quite clear you wanted to deceive them.”

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