SINGAPORE - A 49-year-old woman who allegedly duped at least five people into giving her more than $5.4 million for bogus gold investments was charged on Friday (May 24).

Vietnamese national Nguyen Thi Thu Lan faced one count of cheating one of the victims of $666,048 by deceiving the man into believing that she was selling him 12kg of gold bars, according to court documents.

In a statement on Friday, the police said that several victims reported in January and February that they were approached by Lan, who claimed to operate a gold brokerage firm.

She claimed that the company was selling gold at a discounted price.

The victims were directed to make bank transfers of between $261,000 and $3.54 million, purportedly for buying gold.

However, Lan allegedly did not fulfil the purchase orders after the payments were made.

Officers from the Ang Mo Kio Police Division identified Lan through follow-up investigations and arrested her on Wednesday.

Preliminary investigations show that she was believed to be involved in at least five gold investment scam cases, where victims were cheated of more than $5.4 million, police said.

They added that a 24-year-old man is assisting in investigations into the case.

Lan is due to appear in court again on May 31.

If convicted of cheating, she may be jailed up to 10 years or fined.