A joint investigation by Chinese and Singaporean police resulted in the arrest of 43 China-based members of a crime gang that targets Singaporeans. The credit-for-sex syndicate operates from call centers in China and have cheated Singaporean victims S$1.6 million (7.3 million yuan).
The probe done by the Singaporean Police Force (SPF) was part of the 627 reports of credit-for-sex scams it received for January through June 2015, Channel News Asia reported on Saturday. After jointly investigating the complaints with the SPF, the Criminal Investigation Department of China’s Ministry of Public Security raided different locations in the country and confiscated several modems, computers and telecommunication gadgets.
The credit-for-sex scam involves the use of pretty and young women on social media who offer men sexual favors in exchange for buying them online credit. The women tell the men to purchase credit at Alipay Purchase Cards, which are sold at AXS machines, or using iTunes cards. Alipay, a third-party online platform, functions like PayPal but could only be used at Taobao and Tmall, retail websites based in China.
When the victim registers the cards using the woman’s email address, she would be able to use the credit, but the scammer would not push through meeting their male victims, explained AsiaOne.
One victim is John, a delivery driver, who saw Feifei’s photo on Baidu, a website in China. They chatted on WeChat, a Chinese messaging service, with Feifei, who admitted she is a sex trade worker. She sent him her sexy photos and offered sex at S$100 for two hours and S$200 if overnight and sex is unlimited.
They were supposed to meet in Ang Mo Kio Avenue, but Feifei did not show up. She instead told John to send the payment by buying an Alipay card at an AXS machine because credit is a safer way to transact than cash. But John got a call from a man who said he was Feifei’s boss. He asked John to pay S$1,000 more to ensure she would be safe, but would return the amount after John has sex with Feifei.
John negotiated and the man agreed to lower the amount to S$500. After that, neither Feifei nor the man contacted him and Feifei eventually blocked him from WeChat.
With the arrest of the 43, the police force from the two countries hope there would no longer be victims like John who would be cheated of their hard-earned money. David Chew, director of SPF’s Commercial Affairs Department, credits their close cooperation with Chinese authorities for crippling the transnational syndicate.