A 21-year-old Singaporean woman will be charged under the Payment Services Act 2019, for purportedly carrying on a business of providing payment services without a licence.
Investigations revealed that between February 2020 and March 2020, the woman had allegedly provided domestic money transfer services by receiving fraudulent fund transfers on 56 different occasions amounting to more than $42,000 in her bank account, for the purpose of carrying out payment transactions to another local bank account. The woman responded to a job advertisement on Gumtree and was allegedly employed as a personal assistant to assist with receiving payments from clients. She was believed to have been promised a monthly salary of $2000 with a daily commission of $50 to $100.
The woman purportedly did not have a licence to carry on a business of providing any type of payment service in Singapore, nor was she an exempt payment service provider under the Payment Services Act 2019.
The woman will be charged in court on 26 March 2021. Under Section 5 of the Payment Services Act 2019, a person who carries on a business of providing any type of payment service in Singapore without a licence, shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $125,000, 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 with an unbelievably high salary for relatively simple job responsibilities. Legitimate businesses will also not require the job seekers to use their own bank accounts to receive monies on the businesses’ behalf. These acts are common ruses 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 by others to use their bank accounts.
SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE
25 March 2021 @ 11:40 PM