Man under parole ran a rental scam and defrauded more than $9,000 from victims

SINGAPORE: A man did not learn from his past mistakes when, in less than two months after being released on parole, he already plotted a rental scam and defrauded more than $9,000 from three people. 

The 34-year-old suspect now faces eight fraud charges and pleaded guilty to three of them. He was sentenced to 22 months and 175 days imprisonment. 

Case details

According to case investigations, the suspect lived with his mother in a HDB flat located on Yishun Ring Road. The unit had three rooms–one for the mother and one for the suspect, and there was one room vacant. The mother had no intention of renting out the vacant room, but the suspect saw this as an opportunity and planned a rental scam. 

The suspect then looked for potential renters on several platforms, contacted them, and offered different prices. He would entertain these renters when his mother was not home, and once they expressed interest, the suspect would trick them into transferring the rent payment in three separate transactions. 

One of the victims was a 31-year-old Malaysian woman who transferred $1,000 between February 7 and 14. Another victim was a 39-year-old Indian man who wanted to rent the master’s bedroom and one of the two rooms. The suspect instructed him to transfer a total of $4,200 between March 22 and April 7. One more victim was a 41-year-old local man who transferred $4,500 to the suspect between April 27 and 29. 

The suspect allegedly spent all the money he scammed on personal expenses, and he committed the crime while on parole, thus violating his parole order. 

The prosecution declared that the suspect’s prior convictions were similar to this crime, and the modus operandi was also the same. 

Other related news

In a similar report regarding scams, there was a news story about a female college student who bought a game console online from a friend, but did not receive anything from him. 

The suspect also managed to embezzle more than S$260,000 from her on different occasions, and used the money to pay off gambling debts and for his personal expenses.

Read more about the story here.