Freelance tutor Low Mee Mee, 79, had done so several times despite being told by the police to stop. - Photo: ST
SINGAPORE: An elderly woman relinquished control of six bank accounts to others and illicit funds totalling more than S$220,000 were later laundered through those accounts.
The sum included over S$82,000 in scam proceeds traceable to 16 victims.
Freelance tutor Low Mee Mee, 79, repeated her crimes several times despite being told by the police to stop.
She was sentenced to nine months and two weeks’ jail on Thursday (Feb 27) after pleading guilty to two counts of misusing a computer system.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Jonathan Tan said: “Age is no excuse for behaving (as if she was) above the law. The accused was given numerous chances before prosecution was brought against her. Yet, time and again, she displayed clear disregard for the law.
“She kept repeating the same crimes despite being told unequivocally to stop, and, in doing so, she enabled scammers to cause losses to innocent individuals, and burdened law enforcement for more than a year in a game of cat and mouse.”
In December 2021 or January 2022, Low responded to a money-lending advertisement on WhatsApp.
She asked to borrow $2,000 but the unknown moneylenders told her that the minimum loan amount was $3,000.
They also told her that for a loan of $3,000, there were “additional documentation and processing fees” totalling around $5,000.
Using one of her bank accounts, Low eventually transferred up to $27,000 to them but did not receive any money in return.
Court documents did not disclose why she had asked for the $2,000 loan even though she had a larger amount in her account.
She lodged a police report on Jan 14, 2022, and was told the moneylenders were scammers.
Despite this, she contacted the moneylenders again in April that year and they told her that she could get her money back if she shared with them the login credentials to her bank account.
She complied and lodged another police report the following month.
An investigating officer then told her to stop making any more transfers and to stop engaging the moneylenders.
Low later admitted to the authorities that she had disclosed her bank account details to the moneylenders.
Separately, some time in either 2021 or 2022, she got to know a person known as “Zhang Wei”, who had added her as a friend on Facebook.
He claimed to be a 55-year-old American Chinese engineer based in Los Angeles.
During their conversations, Zhang Wei said that he could do “Bitcoin investment” on Low’s behalf.
She later shared with him the details linked to two of her bank accounts.
On April 18, 2023, the police called her up over an investigation relating to one of the accounts that was being used to receive scam proceeds.
When asked for records of a chat log between herself and Zhang Wei, Low claimed that she had blocked his number on WhatsApp and deleted the logs.
She also claimed that she had learnt her lesson and would not repeat her mistakes.
But several days later, Low unblocked Zhang Wei on WhatsApp after an unknown person who claimed to be his friend contacted her and said that Zhang Wei had no means of survival.
DPP Tan said: “The accused claimed that she became soft-hearted and unblocked Zhang Wei on WhatsApp.
“Zhang Wei then informed the accused that he had lost money in his investments, his bank accounts were frozen, and asked the accused for a bank account for him to do cryptocurrency trading.”
Despite the numerous warnings from the police, Low opened a new bank account and shared its details with Zhang Wei.
She also shared with him the details of two other bank accounts.
On three separate occasions between September 2023 and January 2024, Low met up with the police over their investigation linked to these three accounts after they were used to receive scam proceeds.
DPP Tan said: “(In) the end, she had the audacity to tell the police that she chose to believe Zhang Wei.”
On Feb 27, her bail was set at $10,000 and she is expected to begin serving her sentence on March 27. - The Straits Times/ANN
