A 32-year-old Indonesian maid, Dian Sandika (transliteration from Mandarin), stole about $9,000 from her employer’s elderly mother, leaving her with a meagre $3 inside her bank account.
Background
According to Shin Min Daily News, in June earlier this year, the employer, assisting her elderly mother with financial matters stumbled upon a shocking revelation: a significant amount of money had vanished from her mother’s bank account.
The 32-year-old Indonesian maid, employed in August the previous year, lived with the family at Block 235 Bukit Batok East Avenue 5, and was tasked with household chores and caring for her employer’s 69-year-old mother.
The maid, recognizing the elderly woman’s limited mobile phone usage, exploited the situation. She set up an online banking and PayNow account on her own mobile phone, using the victim’s bank details.
From 19 April to 13 June, the maid made manipulative use of the OTP (one-time password) for transactions, transferring a total of $6,653.87 from the victim’s account to herself through 19 transactions via PayNow and online banking transfers.
She then used the money for her own online shopping, as well as remitting some back to her family in Indonesia to pay off debts.
Later, the maid found out about the elderly woman’s ATM card pin and stole her card, using it to make fraudulent withdrawals and charges of about $1,585 from 25 March to 21 April.
She had stolen the ATM card from the victim’s closet before putting it back when she got home.
On 13 June, she transferred money from the victim’s bank account for the last time, stealing $700, before telling her employer that she had to go back to Indonesia because her mother was sick.
On 19 June, about 5 days after the maid had gone back to Indonesia, the employer took her elderly mother’s bank book to update it, and discovered that a huge sum of money had gone missing.
On 7 October, when the maid returned back to Singapore, she was subsequently arrested by the police.
Speaking to SMDN, the elderly victim shared that they had given the maid some money when she claimed that her family was sick, or when her father needed to buy a motorbike.
She added that she was heartbroken when she checked her bank account and saw that she was only left with just $3 inside.