The mastermind behind what is commonly referred to as the DHL parcel scam, involving a total of $983,000, was sentenced to 81/2 years' jail yesterday.
The scam involved fraudsters posing as employees of a courier company. They would call victims and accuse them of sending parcels containing illegal items.
Malaysian Teng Weng Liang, 26, was identified as the brains behind the operation that has seen several offenders jailed. He is the 10th person to be convicted.
When the victims denied sending such parcels, the telephone call would be transferred to someone pretending to be a police officer, who would tell them they had to cooperate with the authorities if they wanted to clear their names.
The victims would be tricked into disclosing their Internet banking details, thinking the "authorities'' needed to access their bank accounts to carry out investigations.
In some cases, the victims were directed to a fake police website to key in their personal particulars and details of their bank accounts.
In other cases, the victims would be persuaded to transfer the money themselves, or to share their Internet banking details including one-time PINs, which the fraudsters used to transfer money to bank accounts Teng and his countrymen controlled. He would then direct his runners to withdraw the money from the accounts.
Teng used four bank accounts to launder money, two of which were provided by men who were charged for their part in the scam.
The other two, a United Overseas Bank account belonging to Greatland Company and a DBS Bank account belonging to Thaithanawat Song, were obtained from an unknown person in Malaysia.
Teng's accomplices - Malaysians Ooi Lun Xiang, 23, Hiu Sheng Fatt, 22, and Tee Jia Yong, 23 - are now serving jail terms of six years, five years and 40 months respectively.
Victims fell prey to the scam either because they feared criminal prosecution or because they genuinely wanted to help law enforcement authorities.
Teng, who was also involved in secret society activities with a syndicate operating out of Taiwan, was convicted of 10 out of 54 charges under the Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Serious Crimes (Confiscation of Benefits) Act.
The court heard that the police recovered at least $663,139.
Seeking a sentence of at least 8 1/2 years, Deputy Public Prosecutor Asoka Markandu said a stiff sentence would send a strong signal to foreign syndicates that money laundering would be severely dealt with.
In mitigation, Teng's lawyer, Mr Zaminder Singh Gill, saidthat by the time his client knew he was dealing with a syndicate, he was "too deep'' in it and unable to pull himself out.
Teng's sentence was backdated to Sept 3 last year. Under the law, he could have been fined up to $500,000 and jailed a maximum of 10 years for each charge.
