A 70-year-old woman who previously landed herself in legal trouble after helping an online romance scammer has been jailed once again after repeating the same mistake, this time receiving more than S$38,000 in suspicious funds on behalf of a man she believed was her boyfriend.
The Singaporean woman, identified as Zhang Yulin, was sentenced to 10 weeks’ imprisonment after pleading guilty to an offence under the Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Serious Crimes (Confiscation of Benefits) Act.
The court heard that Zhang was working as a course coordinator at a consultancy firm when the offences took place.
Romance Scam Led To Cryptocurrency Transactions
According to court documents, Zhang had already been warned by police in June 2023 after assisting an unknown person in receiving proceeds linked to scams. She was specifically cautioned not to allow her bank accounts to be used for transactions involving funds of unknown origin.
Despite the warning, Zhang met a man identifying himself as “Liam” on Instagram in September 2024. The pair soon moved their conversations to Telegram and communicated daily.
Liam claimed to be an engineer working on an offshore oil rig and allegedly told Zhang that he intended to travel to Singapore and start a life with her once his work commitments were completed, reported Shin Min Daily News.
Over time, Zhang developed romantic feelings for him and treated him as her partner.
Opened Coinbase Account For Online Lover
In November 2024, Liam allegedly asked Zhang to open a Coinbase cryptocurrency account in her name so that funds from his company could be deposited there.
He claimed the money was needed to finance maintenance works on the oil rig and said he was unable to access local banking services while offshore.
Believing his story, Zhang opened the account and handed over all account information, including login credentials.
She also agreed to receive funds through her personal bank account.
Whenever money was deposited, Liam would reportedly contact her within minutes and instruct her to transfer the funds into the cryptocurrency account to purchase Bitcoin. The cryptocurrency was then moved to other wallets controlled by unknown parties.
More Than S$38,000 Received
Investigations revealed that Zhang’s bank account received a total of S$38,100 between Dec. 11 and Dec. 16, 2024.
She subsequently transferred S$38,000 elsewhere following Liam’s instructions.
Authorities later discovered that at least S$2,000 of the money originated from a victim of a romance scam.
Zhang was arrested later that month and has not made any restitution to the victim.
Repeat Offender In Similar Scam
The case was particularly serious because Zhang had previously been involved in a similar incident.
In 2019, she was dealt with under a mandatory treatment order after helping a romance scammer.
Despite having already experienced the consequences of becoming involved with online fraudsters and receiving a formal police warning in 2023, she once again allowed her accounts to be used in suspicious transactions.
The court ultimately sentenced her to 10 weeks behind bars.
Authorities continue to remind members of the public never to hand over bank accounts, ATM cards, online banking credentials or cryptocurrency account access to anyone, including people they meet online, as doing so could result in criminal liability if the accounts are used to facilitate scams or money laundering activities.