Shah Faeez Shahrom, a runner in the scam, was sentenced to nine months and two weeks’ jail. -- ST PHOTO: KELVIN CHNG
SINGAPORE (The Straits Times/ANN): In order to make fast money, two men ran a scam by offering to purchase luxury watches or receive cash in exchange for fake gold bars.
The scheme was conceived by Daniel Lim Chin Teck, 27, after coming across a post online that advertised the sale of fake gold bars. He later brought in Wilderic Chan Weibin, 24, as a co-conspirator, and Shah Faeez Shahrom, 27, as a runner in the scam.
On Jan 23, Lim pleaded guilty to two charges including one count for cheating and another under the Computer Misuse Act. He was sentenced to 16 months’ jail along with a S$200 fine.
Shah pleaded guilty to one charge for cheating and was sentenced to nine months and two weeks’ jail.
Chan is set to return to court on Jan 28, after being charged on July 16, 2024, with one count each of cheating and being in possession of a weapon in a public place.
The court heard that Lim had contacted a person known as Luciano on messaging platform Telegram some time in 2024.
As part of their conversations, Luciano pitched the idea of running fake gold bar scams, which interested Lim – who then said he wanted to verify the gold bars to see if they appeared authentic in real life.
On July 3, 2024, Luciano instructed Lim to meet his runner to collect two fake gold bars.
Lim then managed to find a buyer for the gold bars on Carousell and sold them for S$20,000.
Thereafter, Lim and Chan decided to bypass Luciano and run the gold bar scam by themselves, roping in Shah as their runner.
To continue their scam, Lim and Chan purchased fake gold bars online from a different source and posted on Carousell that they were selling the bars, which weigh 100g, for S$10,000 each, claiming they were genuine gold.
The pair later encountered a profile on the platform selling Rolex watches. They contacted the seller and proposed to trade three gold bars and $4,000 in cash for three Rolex watches. The watches were worth $30,000 (RM93,000) in total.
The man agreed to the deal, and Shah was sent to conduct the trade on July 11, 2024.
The next day, Chan sold all three watches at various watch shops for a total of $25,500, and the trio split the profits between themselves.
The man realised he had been cheated only when he tried to sell the gold bars to a pawnshop at a later date, and was informed that they were fake.
The prosecution said the man suffered losses amounting to $30,000 as a result of the scam.
Both Lim and Shah admitted in court that no restitution had been made.
Lim also admitted to helping an unknown person he had met some time in early 2025 on Telegram to solicit a bank account in return for $200.
Around March 2025, Lim managed to obtain the banking information belonging to another man. The prosecution did not elaborate on how he had managed to do so.
Lim then passed on the banking details to the unknown Telegram user, which resulted in the account being used to move more than $22,000 from investment scams. -- The Straits Times/ANN
