A 21-year-old Singaporean man will be charged under the Payment Services Act 2019, for carrying on a business of providing a payment service without a licence.
In April 2020, the Police received more than 40 reports involving online purchase scams. Through follow-up investigations by officers from Woodlands Police Division and Commercial Affairs Department, the identity of the suspect was established. Investigations revealed that between 9 April 2020 and 10 April 2020, the man had allegedly provided domestic money transfer services by receiving fraudulent fund transfers on over 60 different occasions amounting to more than $22,000 in his bank account for the purpose of carrying out payment transactions in Singapore. The man had responded to an online job advertisement where an unknown person hired him as a personal assistant and promised an unreasonably high salary for assisting in providing payment services using his bank account.
The man does not have a licence to carry on a business of providing any type of payment service in Singapore, nor was he an exempt payment service provider under the Payment Services Act 2019.
The man will be charged in court on 6 November 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 license unless he is exempted under the Act. For individuals, the offence is punishable with a fine not exceeding $125,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 years or to 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 individual 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
05 November 2020 @ 7:45 PM