SPF: Four arrested for providing modified foodpanda app that let foreigners impersonate local workers

SINGAPORE: Four men aged between 28 and 45 have been arrested for their suspected roles in operating a scheme that allowed foreign nationals to perform illegal platform work by impersonating local Foodpanda account holders through a modified version of the delivery app.

Acting on information from the Ministry of Manpower (MOM), the Police made the arrests and charged all four men in court on July 29, 2026.

Preliminary investigations revealed that the modified application bypassed Foodpanda’s real-time verification system, which normally requires a live selfie to log in, by allowing users to upload a pre-taken photo of the account owner instead. This enabled foreign nationals without the right to perform platform work in Singapore to log into accounts that did not belong to them and accept food delivery assignments as if they were the actual account holders.

The foreign users paid between S$50 and S$120 per week for access to the modified application, and were also provided with instructions on how to install it and impersonate the account owner to accept job assignments.

Under Singapore law, foreigners are prohibited from entering into platform work arrangements with platform operators or from impersonating local platform workers to perform work through their accounts.

The four men face charges of access with intent to commit cheating under Section 4 of the Computer Misuse Act 1993 read with Section 417 of the Penal Code 1871. This offence carries imprisonment of up to 10 years, a fine of up to S$50,000, or both.

MOM will separately investigate the foreign nationals who performed the illegal work for offences under the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act. The authorities said they will not hesitate to take strong enforcement action against such unlawful acts.

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