<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR>Singaporean cheated of $340,000 in lottery scam
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><TR>Woman fund manager told she had won $8m; nine culprits jailed in HK </TR><!-- Author --><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Sujin Thomas
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->A SINGAPOREAN woman thought she had made it big when she was told that she had won a HK$45 million (S$8 million) lottery. But her elation ended after she realised she had fallen prey to a scam, in which she lost more than S$300,000.
The deceit began last year when the 27-year-old female fund manager received a number of random calls sometime between April and July, asking her to take part in a lottery.
She was later contacted and informed that she had won the top prize of up to HK$45 million in prize money.
Following the news, she was asked to deposit advance fees into bank accounts in Hong Kong in order to claim her windfall.
However, after depositing about HK$1.8 million (S$340,000) into the accounts, contact between her and the fraudsters via telephone and Internet abruptly ceased.
When she did not receive the prize money, she made a police report.
Details only emerged after nine syndicate members - three women and six men - were jailed by a Hong Kong district court last Wednesday. They each received sentences ranging between two and 2-1/2 years, reported the South China Morning Post.
Another woman, Wang Yu-hsin, 28, the Taiwanese wife of a core syndicate member, received the heaviest sentence of 5-1/2 years after being convicted of money laundering and theft.
Together they had tricked 12 victims worldwide into depositing HK$13.88 million in 10 Hong Kong bank accounts.
Deputy Judge Sham Siu-man described their scam as 'poorly organised and unsophisticated'.
Singapore police said yesterday that the Commercial Affairs Department had been in regular contact with Hong Kong police after the Singapore victim lodged her report.
They provided them with information on phone scams here where victims had transferred money into Hong Kong bank accounts.
Following investigations, Hong Kong police arrested a Chinese woman and a Taiwanese man when the woman tried to withdraw money from one of the accounts the Singaporean victim had transferred the money to. [email protected]
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><TR>Woman fund manager told she had won $8m; nine culprits jailed in HK </TR><!-- Author --><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Sujin Thomas
</TD></TR><!-- show image if available --></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->A SINGAPOREAN woman thought she had made it big when she was told that she had won a HK$45 million (S$8 million) lottery. But her elation ended after she realised she had fallen prey to a scam, in which she lost more than S$300,000.
The deceit began last year when the 27-year-old female fund manager received a number of random calls sometime between April and July, asking her to take part in a lottery.
She was later contacted and informed that she had won the top prize of up to HK$45 million in prize money.
Following the news, she was asked to deposit advance fees into bank accounts in Hong Kong in order to claim her windfall.
However, after depositing about HK$1.8 million (S$340,000) into the accounts, contact between her and the fraudsters via telephone and Internet abruptly ceased.
When she did not receive the prize money, she made a police report.
Details only emerged after nine syndicate members - three women and six men - were jailed by a Hong Kong district court last Wednesday. They each received sentences ranging between two and 2-1/2 years, reported the South China Morning Post.
Another woman, Wang Yu-hsin, 28, the Taiwanese wife of a core syndicate member, received the heaviest sentence of 5-1/2 years after being convicted of money laundering and theft.
Together they had tricked 12 victims worldwide into depositing HK$13.88 million in 10 Hong Kong bank accounts.
Deputy Judge Sham Siu-man described their scam as 'poorly organised and unsophisticated'.
Singapore police said yesterday that the Commercial Affairs Department had been in regular contact with Hong Kong police after the Singapore victim lodged her report.
They provided them with information on phone scams here where victims had transferred money into Hong Kong bank accounts.
Following investigations, Hong Kong police arrested a Chinese woman and a Taiwanese man when the woman tried to withdraw money from one of the accounts the Singaporean victim had transferred the money to. [email protected]
