Lisa wanted to borrow S$30,000 from a moneylender. She ended up being harassed by loansharks and investigated by police, all while never getting a single cent.
SINGAPORE: A few months were all it took for Lisa , 21, to spiral from being a victim of scam to a perpetrator of crime.
"Today, a large proportion of investigations into money mules do not result in prosecutions, due to the inherent difficulties in proving the money mule’s intent to participate in moving monies for scam syndicates," Minister of State for Home Affairs Desmond Tan had said. “He was not helping in anything ... I needed to support my family and pay the outstanding bills,” she said. “And if I had enough money, I would go back to study. Because Singapore is all about the certificate.”She found a company with a name and website that looked legitimate enough, so she clicked on an icon to get in touch via WhatsApp.
“They told me this after I gave my details,” she said. “I was having doubts. Why do I need to pay when I never received what I wanted to borrow?” Exhibits seized by police in a loanshark case, involving items typically used to vandalise victims' homes. She soon cracked under the pressure and dipped into the “little bit” of savings she had left to pay off the admin fee.
“I was having doubts also but I was scared. Because while they talked about this, they kept threatening about the money that I owed,” she said.Common schemes include jobs that allow people to earn attractive salaries while working from home and performing"relatively easy" tasks, like using their personal bank account to receive and transfer money.
"In general, a money mule’s actions help to perpetuate the criminal syndicate’s operations by aiding them to move the ill-gotten gains to avoid police’s detection," police said.While Lisa was still physically safe, the threats to her family were acted upon. When Lisa told the loansharks that she was in contact with the police, they got even more brazen and challenged officers to catch them.
"You should always reject requests to use your personal bank accounts to receive and transfer money for others." Lisa said the entire incident has made it very difficult for her to trust people. She acknowledged that a mixture of fear and the fact that she had parted with cash made it difficult for her to escape the clutches of loansharks.
"The scammers may not think that there is a need to dangle any very significant carrot for her to be obliging to the scammer's suggestions, because the need on the victim's end is already so high," he explained. "Thus, they will just oblige to all the scammer's suggestions, and in turn, they unwittingly become money mules."This fear stems from the constant harassment, Mr Lee said, noting that scammers will"make you feel that they know a lot about you: Where you stay, what you normally do, who are in your family".
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