A netizen has filed a police report against a woman who planned to raise $30 million from donors online, purportedly to help the Workers’ Party (WP) parliamentarians who were embroiled in the Aljunied-Hougang Town Council (AHTC) lawsuit.
The woman, known as Frances Ng, apparently planned to raise the hefty sum from 100,000 who would pledge $300 each to the cause. The opposition party, however, clarified that it has nothing to do with Ng’s effort and urged the public to be cautious of giving funds to anyone claiming to represent the party.
Shortly thereafter, questions over the real identity of Frances Ng surfaced, with many asking whether Ng is even a real person. After this, Ng apparently deleted her main account on Facebook.
Claiming that Frances Ng is indeed a real person, Facebook user Cinorom Elicebmi has revealed that he has lodged a police report against her. The netizen wrote on his Facebook page today that Ng planned to cash in on the explosion of donations when the WP parliamentarian launched a private fundraising effort as the trial progressed:
“One Frances Ng Poh Joo…was at the ready to exploit this explosion in online donations for the trio. She intended to ‘raise’ Singapore Dollars Thirty Million (S$30,000,000) whereby 100,000 donors will fork out S$300 each for WP.
“Mr Goh Meng Seng stepped in to thwart the fraudster and prevent this fundraising fraud when WP clarified that the three MPs are undertaking a private fund-raising effort and it is not raising funds for the defendants.
“Further, in their Facebook page, WP said that it has nothing to do with that effort and urged the public to be wary of donating money to anyone claiming to represent the party. This statement was made when Frances Ng’s fraudulent acts apparently surfaced before WP.
“Now, there is a question that begs an answer. What drove Frances Ng to try her luck in defrauding donors whereby the chances of exposure is relatively high in Singapore?”
Revealing details he had apparently dug up about Ng’s personal life, such as her marital status, NRIC number and address, the netizen went on to allege that Ng may have “unspent criminal records”.
The netizen added that Ng may have tried to exploit netizens’ frustrations with the authorities in order to cope with “financial hardship” due to an apparently declining business that he says is straining her marriage.
Describing her “modus operandi” as “sophisticated,” the netizen elaborated:
“She started off with creating several Facebook accounts with a main one employing crowd manipulation. She intentionally use this technique to engage and influence anti government crowd. She would cut and paste news articles from alternate sources and apply sensationalism to stoke the fire.
“As her ‘followers’ grew in numbers, her consistent, enduring effort to create or shape an event, in this case the fundraising endeavour, to defraud her ‘followers’ paid off.
“Her ‘followers’ comprise of taxi-drivers, hawkers, retirees, etc for she had carefully chosen poorly educated ones as they are easily manipulatable people. It is believed several had credited her accounts before Mr Goh’s stopper came into effect.”
The netizen ended his post by sharing a picture of the police report he filed and by cautioning that “criminals thrive in the indulgence of our society’s understanding”.
