26-year-old Byron Yeaw, pleaded guilty to 5 counts of cheating on 23 September, and was sentenced to 1 year imprisonment.
He had taken advantage of the kindness of strangers at MRT stations since 2019, with the amount of money that he cheated amounting to about $28,000 in total.
No money to go home
His modus operandi involves telling strangers that he didn’t have money to get back home, and had to “borrow” money from them.
He would usually wait at MRT stations and approach passers-by, and lie to them that he had to travel to somewhere far away.
He’ll then ask them to help him check the cost of a PHV or taxi to the location, before telling them that he has to arrange the rides himself so that he can claim from his “employer”.
The victims would then be assured that he could be “trusted” through his identification documents, and he assured them that he would return them the money.
He would then use the money for his personal expenses.
His scamming spree went on for about 4 years, during which he scammed his victims of about $28,000 – and he was also arrested thrice during his spree.
When he first began his scams in 2019, he was an employee with Singtel. He was arrested in March 2020, and again in 2021.
He was released for the second time before continuing his scams until March 2022, when he ended up being remanded.
Cheated NSF of $2,000
One of his victims include an NSF whom he met at Yew Tee MRT station in February earlier this year, and he (Yeaw) told the NSF that he only had 50 cents in his bank account and that his “HR department” has yet to pay him his salary on time.
He then gave a sob story to the NSF and said that he needed to borrow money until the end of the month, to which the victim then gave him $2,000 despite only having $2,100 in his bank account.
However, when Yeaw tried to ask him for the remaining $100 in his bank account, the victim then lodged a police report after smelling something fishy.