Man charged over allegedly helping scammers collect cash from victims for rewards of $30 to $50
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Owen Tan Jian Wei was handed four charges on Oct 31, including cheating, money laundering and facilitating unauthorised access to computer material.
ST PHOTO: KELVIN CHNG
- Owen Tan Jian Wei, 24, faces charges including cheating and money laundering for allegedly collecting $10,000 from a scam victim.
- Tan was allegedly recruited via Telegram, promised $30 to $50 per collection, and provided banking credentials to an unknown person.
- Singapore lost over $456 million to scams in the first half of 2025, with investment scams accounting for over $145 million.
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SINGAPORE - A man who allegedly collected money from scam victims on behalf of scammers for cash rewards of $30 to $50 has been charged.
Owen Tan Jian Wei, 24, was handed four charges on Oct 31, including cheating, money laundering and facilitating unauthorised access to computer material.
According to court documents, Tan is accused of collecting $10,000 in cash from a scam victim at a void deck in Pasir Ris Street 12 on Oct 10.
The police said on Oct 30 that they received a report of an investment scam involving a fraudulent online trading platform.
The victim was said to have handed over cash amounting to $75,000 over three separate transactions to unknown individuals after being deceived by scammers who introduced her to a fake investment opportunity through WhatsApp.
The victim had been guided to create a trading account on a fraudulent website and make physical cash transactions.
Investigations revealed that Tan was allegedly recruited through messaging platform Telegram to collect cash from the victim. He was offered cash rewards of between $30 and $50 for each cash collection task.
Tan is also accused of providing his banking credentials to an unknown person.
His case was adjourned for the completion of investigations and will be heard again on Nov 27.
The police said on Oct 30 that they take a serious stance against any person who may be involved in scams, and perpetrators will be dealt with in accordance with the law.
“The police would like to remind members of the public never to transfer monies, hand monies or other valuables to any unknown persons or persons whose identity they have not verified,” said the police.
In the first half of 2025, over $456 million was lost to scams in Singapore, with almost 20,000 cases reported.
During that period, the amount lost to investment scams was the highest among all scam types. More than $145 million was lost from January to June in 2025, an increase from the $131.5 million in the same period in 2024.
