Reformative training for youth who duped victims of cash after posing as female sex worker online
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In September, Shaun Oh Yan Zhe pleaded guilty to two counts of cheating involving two victims.
ST PHOTO: SHINTARO TAY
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SINGAPORE – A youth, who pretended to be a female sex worker online and cheated three men of $800 in total after they wanted to engage “her” services, was ordered on Oct 29 to undergo reformative training for at least six months.
Young offenders ordered to go through reformative training are detained in a centre to undergo a strict regimen that can include foot drills and counselling.
In September, Shaun Oh Yan Zhe, 20, pleaded guilty to two counts of cheating
Three other charges, including one of cheating involving the third victim, were considered during his sentencing.
Oh, who was 19 years old when he cheated the men, has since made full restitution to them.
He had also admitted to the police to using a similar ruse to cheat about six to seven other victims.
Oh then voluntarily surrendered $1,470 to the state over these other incidents, which were not part of his charges.
In earlier proceedings, Deputy Public Prosecutor Quek Lu Yi told the court that before committing the offences, Oh went to classified advertisement website Locanto and posted an ad, pretending to be a 19-year-old female sex worker.
Two men responded to the ad and contacted him via messaging platform Telegram.
One of them transferred $550 to Oh on July 1, 2024, while the other transferred $100 to him the following month.
DPP Quek said Oh blocked the pair on Telegram after receiving the money.
Court documents did not disclose details about the third man’s case.
In an unrelated case, Oh received a Telegram message in July 2024 from an unknown woman identified as “X” in court documents.
She offered him “fast cash” in exchange for details of his Singpass or bank accounts.
The prosecutor said: “X informed the accused that she would be using the account to trade stocks and that what she was doing was legal. The accused did not take any reasonable steps to verify her claims.”
X then offered Oh $2,000 in exchange for opening a bank account.
He did as he was told and shared the internet banking details with her.
The account received $34,675 before the money was transferred out on July 23, 2024.
From this sum, $34,650 was later traced to a scam victim and the amount has not been recovered.
Oh later told investigators that X had failed to pay him.
