A 36-year-old man will be charged under the Payment Services Act 2019 for carrying on a business of providing a payment service without a licence.
Investigations revealed that in May 2020, the man had allegedly provided domestic money transfer services by receiving fraudulent fund transfers on 42 different occasions amounting to more than $14,000 in his bank account for the purpose of carrying out payment transactions to local bank account. The man had allegedly responded to a job advertisement online and was allegedly employed as a personal assistant to assist with receiving payments from clients. He was allegedly promised a monthly salary of $2000 with daily commission of $50 to $100.
The man did not have a licence to carry on a business of providing any type of payment service in Singapore, and was not an exempted payment service provider under the Payment Services Act 2019.
The man will be charged in court on 28 January 2020. Under Section 5 of the Payment Services Act 2019, it is an offence for anyone to carry on a business of providing any type of payment service in Singapore without a licence unless he is exempted under the Act. For individuals, the offence is punishable with a fine not exceeding $125,000, or imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years, or both.
The Police would like to caution job seekers to be wary of job advertisements that promise the convenience of working from home and being paid unreasonably high salary for relatively easy job responsibilities. Legitimate businesses will not require the job seekers to utilise their own bank accounts to receive monies on the businesses’ behalf. These acts are common ruse used by scammers to have individuals carry out illicit payment transfers on their behalf. To avoid becoming involved in money laundering activities, members of the public should always reject requests to use their personal bank accounts to receive and transfer money for others.
Sample of message from recruiter
SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE
27 January 2021 @ 4:35 PM