Three men, Wen Yanchun (“Wen”) aged 52, Zhu Xiaoyuan (“Zhu”) aged 51, and Kang Shouming (“Kang”) aged 62, have been convicted and sentenced on 9 October 2024 to six months’ imprisonment for offences of abetment of cheating. The three men conspired to cheat the victim by deceiving the victim into believing that they had discovered genuine gold ingots during excavation works in Singapore. In fact, the gold ingots were fake.
On 19 June 2024, the victim was approached by Wen and Zhu. Wen and Zhu presented gold-coloured ingots to the victim and claimed that they found these ingots while excavating at a construction site in Singapore. To convince the victim of the truth of their story, the men produced a document with old Chinese writings, resembling an old will, which they had prepared. Wen and Zhu then sought the victim’s help to verify the worth of the gold-coloured ingots.
The victim accompanied the men to conduct authentication checks with a goldsmith shop along Eu Tong Sen Street. The men passed her a real gold piece they had obtained from a bracelet belonging to Wen’s wife to authenticate, instead of the gold-coloured ingots. They told the victim that they did not want to present the gold-coloured ingots to the shop staff to avoid raising suspicion, and that this gold piece was cut out from one of the gold-coloured ingots. The shop staff then authenticated the gold piece and told the victim that the gold piece was worth about $450/-.
After the gold piece was authenticated, Wen and Zhu reached an agreement with the victim for her to help them safekeep some of the gold-coloured ingots in exchange for collateral. The victim thus handed over $4,000 in cash to the men in exchange for 30 gold-coloured ingots. The victim then went back to the goldsmith shop to authenticate the gold-coloured ingots, but was informed that they were fake.
The victim subsequently alerted the police, reporting that she had been cheated of $4,000 after receiving fake gold ingots from two men. Through extensive ground enquiries and with the aid of surveillance footages, the Police established the identities of Wen and Zhu and arrested them on 20 June 2024. Through further investigations, the officers also traced and arrested Kang and seized over 80 pieces of gold-coloured ingots, 6 gold-coloured mini-Buddha statues, and the document resembling an old will, which was fake.
The Police would like to advise members of the public to be wary of such scams. To avoid falling victim to such scams, members of public are advised to adopt the following crime prevention measures:
- Always buy from established and authorised/ reputable retailers. Be wary of offers that sound too good to be true;
- Enlist a professional’s assistance to verify the authenticity and value of any high value items you intend to purchase before making payment.
The Police has zero tolerance against such acts of deliberated crime and will spare no effort to apprehend such offenders. Perpetrators will be dealt with sternly in accordance with the law.
SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE
09 October 2024 @ 6:30 PM