Two victims of credit-for-sex scheme turned collaborators jailed

Two Singaporean men who were cheated in a credit-for-sex scheme later became accessory to a transnational syndicate by allowing their bank accounts to be used in transactions of illegal funds.

In two separate incidents, Elson Lim Yunjun, 26, and Eric Lin Weishen, 34, had initially purchased Alipay credits as pre-payment on the day they were supposed to meet women for sexual services.

The two men never got to meet the women, and both asked for a refund after buying several hundred dollars worth of credits. However, the syndicate involved in the sex scam refunded the men more money than what they had originally spent.

The men began to be involved in a cycle of transfers in which they would receive illegal monies, which they were required to transfer in Alipay credits to the syndicate and allowed to keep the remainder.

Of the monies they received, Lim managed to spend $720.32 for his personal use while Lin spent $327.45. Lim had $36,400 of illegal funds transferred into his bank account while Lin had $18,200 transferred into his.

On Monday (9 October), both men were charged under the Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Serious Crimes Act (CDSA) for facilitating criminal conduct by knowingly allowing their bank accounts to be used for the offences.

Lim was jailed for 10 months on one count under the Act while Lin, who had used three different bank accounts – his own, his brother’s and another victim’s bank account – was jailed for 12 months on three counts.

The court heard that Lim had responded to an advertisement for sexual services by a woman on Locanto, an online classifieds network, in late March this year. He arranged to meet the woman at Pioneer Mall on 31 March 2017.

On the day, Lim received several calls from strangers who asked him to purchase Alipay credits as pre-payment for the woman’s services. In total, Lim bought $522.25 worth of credits and sent them to an email address given to him by the callers. When Lim was told that he would only receive the sexual services the next day, Lim asked for a refund and gave the caller his bank account number.

The same caller told Lim the next day that $1,000 had been wrongly transferred into his bank account. Lim was told to return the $627.90 in Alipay credits to the same email address while he was allowed to keep the rest for the “trouble” that had been caused to him, said the Deputy Public Prosecutors (DPPs) Magdalene Huang and Thiam Jia Min.

Lim suspected that the money deposited into his account was illegal but agreed to keep the balance. The same routine occurred over the next few days and Lim got to keep $10 to $20 for each transaction.

The same happened for Lin, who was supposed to meet a woman he contacted online via WeChat at Bedok Reservoir on 20 April this year. Lin made $204.60 worth of ‘deposits’ after two callers told him to do so.

After waiting four to six hours of waiting, Lin received a call from one of the callers, a man known as Ah Jiu, who claimed that they had trouble managing the prostitutes, resulting in the delay. The caller then told Lin that he can get a refund if he agreed to collect money on his behalf and convert the money into Alipay credit for Ah Jiu. Lin was told he would be allowed to keep $20 to $40 per transaction. Lin received the illegal monies between 21 April and 15 May.

On 2 May, POSB flagged Lin’s account for ‘suspicious activity’ so Lin was unable to draw money from it, even though it could still receive deposits. Lin then borrowed his younger brother’s account for the illicit transactions.

Lin also used another bank account belonging to a victim of the syndicate for the transactions after receiving the ATM card from a staircase at an Aljunied flat at Ah Jiu’s instructions for the transactions. Ah Jiu had provided him with the PIN number for the ATM card.

The prosecution sought a jail sentence of at least 12 months for Lin and at least 10 months for Lim. It noted that 60 to 100 police reports have been lodged by male victims each month with regard to credit-for-sex scams since the start of this year. A total of 779 cases were lodged last year.

These victims were cheated into transferring moneys to local bank accounts or buying Alipay credits as pre-payment for sexual services with women whom they met on chat apps such as WeChat and LINE.

“While potential victims could have been warned by the police’s advice to exercise caution when purchasing Alipay credits for sexual services, they often let their guard down when syndicates provide them with local bank accounts to deposit their payments,” said the DPPs.

Lim and Lin were money mules who helped actual members of the syndicate avoid detection and apprehension by allowing the syndicate to distance itself from the offences, said the prosecution. Both had also helped the syndicate to move the benefits from its criminal conduct “out of jurisdiction” by converting the money into Alipay credits and iTunes gift cards, it added.

Both men were represented by lawyer Naidu Thanapathy Ulaganathan, who asked the court not to impose a jail sentence that was beyond what the prosecution asked for.

Each man could have been jailed up to 10 years and/or fined $500,000 on each count of the offence.