SG is financial loss/fraud/scam hub. Huat ah!

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Taylor Swift concert ticket scam: Woman jailed 36 months for cheating victims of more than $110k​

Foo Mei Qi, 30, was sentenced to 36 months’ jail after pleading guilty to one amalgamated charge of cheating.

Feb 06, 2025

SINGAPORE – Shortly after she was released from jail for cheating fans into buying non-existent tickets to Taiwanese singer Eric Chou’s concert, a woman went back to her old ways.

The victims this time were more than 70 fans of American star Taylor Swift.

On Feb 6, Foo Mei Qi, 30, was sentenced to 36 months’ jail after pleading guilty to one amalgamated charge of cheating.

Between June 2023 and February 2024, she cheated 76 people of over $110,700 in total. The victims were deceived into thinking she was selling them tickets on Carousell to Swift’s concerts.

In March 2024, Swift performed six nights of The Eras Tour in Singapore, which was her only stop in South-east Asia.

It was not mentioned in court if any of Foo’s victims were from overseas.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Yohanes Ng said Foo would ask victims to transfer various sums of money to her in exchange for concert tickets. After they did so, she would cease contact with them.

In addition to these 76 victims, Foo also sold fake concert tickets to three other victims.

These victims paid a total of $7,780 to Foo, only to find out on the day they attended the concert that the tickets sent to them were not genuine as they were unable to enter the concert venue.

DPP Ng said Foo also pretended to sell tickets to the Bruno Mars concert in Singapore and cheated another three victims into transferring over $1,000 to her.

She was arrested on March 11, 2024, after multiple police reports were filed.

Foo later admitted that she used the money to pay for her daily expenses, including meals for herself and her family, her medical bills, and her wedding.

No restitution has been made to any of the victims.

Referencing the song Enchanted from Swift’s third album, Speak Now, DPP Ng said: “Enchanted by the accused’s promises of much-coveted tickets to the Singapore leg of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour in March 2024, innocent victims were cheated of $110,742.20.”

The prosecutor sought a jail term of 36 to 38 months’ jail, noting that it was not the first time Foo had perpetrated such a scam.


In March 2022, she was sentenced to 17 months’ jail after admitting to listing tickets to concerts by Chou and Japanese composer Joe Hisaishi, and related fan merchandise, even though she did not have any of those items. The total loss suffered by all the victims in that case was over $13,000.

“Even that substantial period of imprisonment was not sufficient to deter her from preying on desperate fans who were unable to secure concert tickets, to fund her own gold rush,” said DPP Ng, referencing another of Swift’s song, gold rush, from the album, evermore.

In mitigation, defence lawyer Viveganandam Devaraj said what his client did was not a premeditated scheme but rather a “series of unfortunate events”.

In response, District Judge Paul Chan asked: “How can there be no premeditation if she cheated 76 victims?”

Mr Devaraj then replied that he accepted that there was premeditation and sought leniency from the court.

In sentencing, the judge said Foo demonstrated a strong commitment to offending, and significant weight must be placed on the fact that she is a repeat offender. “The previous sentence was insufficient to deter her from committing the same offence. The accused’s criminal appetite has increased, and there are now more victims involving a greater amount of money,” he added.

In March 2024, The Straits Times reported that at least 960 victims lost over $538,000 in 10 weeks to Taylor Swift concert ticket scams.

Two months later, a teenage boy admitted to cheating three victims of $1,540 by claiming that he had tickets to Swift’s concert for sale.

In November 2024, a woman was sentenced to seven months’ jail for scamming six people of over $2,700 for concerts by Swift and Ed Sheeran.

 

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Victims lost at least $32.6m to scams since January, police urge vigilance​

More than 470 cases of investment scams have been reported since January 2025.

Feb 11, 2025

SINGAPORE – At least $32.6 million were lost to investment scams since January 2025, with police urging members of the public to remain vigilant.

More than 470 cases of such scams have been reported, police said in an advisory on Feb 11.

Victims were approached through social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, as well as messaging and dating applications such as Telegram, WhatsApp and Coffee Meets Bagel.


“Scammers would build rapport with victims to gain their trust before introducing ‘investment opportunities’, which may involve cryptocurrencies,” police said in the advisory.

In these cases, the scammers would then persuade the victims to transfer their cryptocurrencies to fraudulent cryptocurrency trading platforms, or scammer’s wallets.

Some victims would initially receive small profits, to deceive them to continue investing, police added. Fake “investment” websites or applications would display allegedly growing “profits” made by the victims, to lead them to invest larger sums.

In other cases, victims encountered investment advertisements on social media platforms featuring supposed endorsements from political figures or celebrities.


After clicking the links on these advertisements, the victims would be led to messaging platforms to contact the scammers.

“In other cases, victims were redirected to fraudulent trading platforms instead and prompted to provide their personal particulars, such as contact details and card details to register for an account,” police said.

“These victims would then receive phone calls or messages from scammers posing as staff from investment companies or brokers.”

Additionally, scammers gained some victims by adding them to chat groups or channels, such as on messaging platform Telegram.

“To lure victims into believing that the investment is authentic and profitable, these chat groups or channels may associate themselves with famous individuals or reputable companies or have other ‘members’ in the chat group attest to the profits they have made from the investments,” police said.

Victims who reached out to the scammers would be offered various investment plans and asked for their personal information to join the “investment”.

Scammers may also use “investment” websites or applications to display “profits” to reinforce their scam.

Most of the victims realised they had been scammed when they could not withdraw their profits despite transferring increasingly large sums as fees incurred for their “investment”.

Scammers would also become uncontactable in some cases.

Police advised members of the public to be cautious when making investment decisions and to take precautionary steps to avoid being scammed.

This includes:

• Setting up or activating security features, such as the privacy function, which prevents unknown users from adding them to chat groups;
• Checking for scam signs with official sources or websites and verifying the authenticity of the investment company; and
• Telling authorities, as well as family and friends, if or when they encounter scams.

Members of the public can also reach out to the ScamShield Helpline at 1799 if they are in doubt.

 

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At least 189 Carousell, Facebook users lost over $303,000 to phishing scams since January​

At least 189 people have since Jan 1 fallen prey to fraudsters posing as interested “buyers” on platforms such as Carousell and Facebook Marketplace.

Feb 12, 2025

SINGAPORE – Users of online marketplace platforms have lost more than $303,000 to phishing scams involving fake buyers since Jan 1.

In a statement on Feb 12, the police said that at least 189 people have fallen prey to fraudsters posing as interested “buyers” on platforms such as Carousell and Facebook Marketplace.

After agreeing on the selling price of the listed items through in-app chat functions or separate messaging platforms such as WhatsApp, victims would receive an e-mail, purportedly from the online marketplace platform, confirming the order.


The e-mail would prompt victims to click on an embedded link in order to receive payment, the police said.

After clicking on the link, victims would be redirected to a spoofed bank website and asked to key in their personal information, such as banking credentials, card details and one-time-passwords.

In other cases, scammers would offer to arrange a courier service for the items.

Victims would then receive a QR code or a phishing link, purportedly from delivery companies such as Grab and Lalamove, to facilitate delivery.

Upon scanning the QR code or clicking on the phishing link, victims would be directed to a spoofed delivery company website or bank website, where they would enter their personal information to complete the transaction.

Victims would realise that they had been scammed only after discovering unauthorised transactions in their bank accounts or bank cards.


Scam cases reached an all-time high in the first half of 2024, with more than $385.6 million lost across 26,587 reported incidents.

Data for the second half of 2024 is not yet available.

The public is urged to adopt precautionary measures, such as enabling security features, checking for scam signs against official sources and reporting scams to the authorities.

For more information or to report such crimes, individuals can contact the police hotline on 1800-255-0000 or visit the ScamShield website.

 

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Nearly 10 years’ jail for woman who committed cheating linked to over $5.7m of mostly crypto funds​

Ho Kai Xin pleaded guilty to five cheating charges, eight counts of dealing with the benefits of criminal conduct, and one count of giving false information to a public servant.

Feb 20, 2025

SINGAPORE - By making amendments on Microsoft Excel files used for payrolls, a woman working at a fintech company committed cheating linked to more than $5.7 million, mostly relating to cryptocurrency.

On Feb 20, Ho Kai Xin, 32, was sentenced to nine years and 11 months’ jail after she pleaded guilty to five cheating charges, eight counts of dealing with the benefits of criminal conduct, and one count of giving false information to a public servant.

Thirty other charges were considered during her sentencing.

In January, the Singaporean was given six weeks’ jail for contempt of court after spending the ill-gotten funds despite being ordered not to do so.

Ho will start serving her longer sentence after completing her earlier one.

The prosecution said she had used her ill-gotten gains to live a lavish lifestyle, including placing a down payment of nearly $750,000 for a penthouse in Gilstead Road near Dunearn Road worth more than $3.7 million.

She also bought sunglasses, bags, shoes, shirts and rings from luxury brand Louis Vuitton, each costing thousands of dollars, Deputy Public Prosecutor Jeremy Bin told the court.

DPPs Bin and Ariel Tan stated in court documents that from Oct 20, 2021, to Oct 6, 2022, Ho worked as a payroll processing staff member at Wechain Fintech Singapore.

Wechain had been engaged to handle the payroll for employees of ByBit Fintech, a company from Seychelles that owns and operates a cryptocurrency exchange.


Ho was in charge of carrying out payroll processing for around 900 ByBit employees.

She committed cheating for profit for the first time in May 2022 by swindling Wechain of more than $117,000 after making amendments to Microsoft Excel files, reflecting payments that she was not entitled to.

The DPPs told the court: “When her actions went undetected, the accused became emboldened, going on a cheating spree to drain her client company, ByBit, of its monies.

“Month after month, she (made off with) massive amounts of cryptocurrency from ByBit’s electronic wallet into four of her own.”

Police managed to seize from Ho Kai Xin more than $330,000 worth of items including a Mercedes-Benz car.

PHOTOS: SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE

Ho owned six bank accounts and four electronic wallets on four different cryptocurrency platforms.

To carry out her offences involving ByBit, she dishonestly inserted into an Excel file fraudulent rows showing purported payments owed by ByBit in cryptocurrency USDT.


She also stated in this row that the payment was to be made to one of her four electronic wallet addresses.

To deceive ByBit into paying out these amounts, Ho inserted the names of its employees together with her electronic wallet addresses.

She then received the money from ByBit in her electronic wallets before converting her ill-gotten gains into fiat currencies.

From May 31 to Aug 31, 2022, ByBit made eight cryptocurrency transfers from its electronic wallet to Ho’s four wallets, amounting to more than 4.2 million USDT.

After committing multiple counts of cheating involving $5.7 million in total, she laundered over $4.3 million of her criminal proceeds.

In February 2023, a Wechain representative alerted the police about Ho’s offences. Officers arrested her two months later.

Ho later lied to an investigation officer. Among other things, she claimed that her purported cousin – one “Jason Teo”, who does not exist – was responsible for the unlawful transactions.

The court heard that police managed to seize from Ho more than $330,000 worth of items including a Mercedes-Benz car.

ByBit also managed to recover more than 1.1 million USDT from her electronic wallets and over $140,000 from one of her bank accounts.

Ho has not made any offers to repay the remaining amount to ByBit.

On Feb 20, defence lawyer James Gomez pleaded for his client, a mother of two young sons, to be given up to eight years and eight months’ jail, adding: “Her actions were a lapse in judgment, and she has since reflected deeply on the consequences they have had on her family, the victim and the justice system.”

Separately, a civil court had earlier ordered Ho not to utilise her ill-gotten gains. However, she disobeyed the court orders and spent close to $840,000 on items, including multiple luxury goods.

For flouting the High Court orders, she was handed the earlier sentence of six weeks’ jail on Jan 27.