S’pore man cheats victims $31,000 through internet love scams, Australian grandma duped to become drug mule through romance scam

There are such things as love scams, and they involve both men and women, and they are very active on the internet in particular. In 2019, a grandmother fell victim to a love scam.

A romance online, a flight from China to Malaysia, and then the shocking realisation: Maria Exposto’s backpack was full of drugs! The plot is typical, involving online scams and phoney romance. She didn’t realise the internet romance was a scam until she was arrested at Malaysia’s Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

In this case, an Australian grandmother was fortunate to avoid the gallows in Malaysia.

Though these stories are plenty in the media, they seem to escape attention and more people are falling in love with scammers online. Becoming a drug mule is one of the unfortunate events that could strike you if you are not careful with love on the internet.

The most common love scams involve the wiring of cash to lovers who claim to be in dire need of money. They are so sweet, some say, that you can’t stop sending them money to bail them out of their troubles! Some calls this ‘Romance Scam’.

In Singapore, a 26-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of being involved in a series of Internet love scams.

Between May 11 2021 and May 13 2022, the Police received numerous reports from victims who claimed to have been duped by a man who created a fictitious online persona and befriended them on various dating platforms.

The man would allegedly defraud these victims by asking them to transfer a total of more than $31,000 for various purposes such as credit card bill repayment and payment of his daily expenses.

Officers from the Bedok Police Division established the man’s identity through subsequent investigations and arrested him on May 17, 2022.

The police investigation is still ongoing. Cheating is a punishable offence under Section 420 of the Penal Code. The offence of cheating under Section 420 of the Penal Code carries an imprisonment term of up to 10 years and a fine.

For more information on scams, members of the public can visit scamalert.sg or call the Anti-Scam Hotline at 1800-722-6688.

Anyone with information on such scams may call the Police Hotline at 1800-255-0000 or submit information online at www.police.gov.sg/iwitness

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