Woman who used fake PayNow screenshot at Clarke Quay fruit tea shop apologises, pays in full

SINGAPORE: A woman who tried to pay for S$79.60 worth of drinks at Yi Fang Fruit Tea, a shop at Clarke Quay, with a falsified PayNow screenshot returned to the store to apologise and pay in full.

The incident occurred at around 3 pm on Dec 18 and was fully caught on CCTV footage shared by Yi Fang Fruit Tea with Mothership. The woman can be seen inside the shop, where she ordered a total of six drinks. She can also be seen leaving the shop with her order.

Her order was taken by Mr Zhong, the store’s operations manager, who was the sole staff member at the time, as the other employees were on a lunch break. He told Shin Min Daily News that she told him she made the payment via PayNow, and then left while her order was being prepared.

However, when the operations manager asked his superior, he was told the payment had not yet been made.

When the woman returned 15 minutes later to collect the drinks she ordered, Mr Zhong told her the shop had not yet received her payment. She then showed him a screenshot of a PayNow transfer record. After taking a picture of the alleged payment, he handed over the woman’s order.

Shin Min Daily News also said that the woman was in a hurry, telling Mr Zhong several times that her private-hire ride had arrived and that she needed to leave.

Mr Zhong’s superior told him later that  Yi Fang Fruit Tea never received payment from the woman.

A representative from the shop told Mothership, “Upon reviewing the screenshot of the alleged PayNow payment, we noticed a visible marked-out area that erased the date and time stamp.”

Mr Zhong offered to pay for the drinks the woman ordered, as the incident occurred under his watch, but his superior refused, telling the operations manager it was a lesson learned.

Nevertheless, the store filed a police report about the doctored screenshot.

That would have been the end of the story, but in a twist, the woman came back on the evening of Dec 23, paid for her order, and apologised to the store.

A report in Mustshare News quotes Mr Zhong as saying that the woman said she did not intentionally leave the store without paying, but her PayNow transfer had not gone through. She also said she hoped Yi Fang Fruit Tea would withdraw the police report it had filed against her.

Nevertheless, the store staff are suspicious of her story, especially since there are similar incidents that occurred at other times in different establishments, even as recently as Dec 28, Mothership reported on Wednesday (Jan 1). The woman seen in footage from these incidents looks like the woman who had presented the fake PayNow screenshot at  Yi Fang Fruit Tea on Dec 18. /TISG

Read also: Joo Chiat’s Home of Seafood Restaurant Duped of Over S$4,600 by Regular Customer Using Fake PayNow Screenshots