2 charged with kidnap scams
Both are foreign nationals - one from China, the other from Taiwan. By Sujin Thomas
TWO foreigners, believed to have been involved in kidnap scams, were charged in a district court on Thursday for cheating two women of about $20,000.
The men, Chinese national Fan Jilin, 22, and Taiwanese national Lin Shih-Tien, 39, had allegedly called the two women and deceived them into believing that their children had been kidnapped.
They told both victims that they needed to pay a ransom in order to ensure the safe return of their loved ones.
On Oct 8, they allegedly called the victim and told her that her daughter had been kidnapped. Later that day, they met the victim at Paya Lebar MRT Station to collect $5,000 from her.
Less than a week later on Oct 13, they played out the same ruse by telling a victim that her son had been kidnapped.
They said that she had to pay them $15,000 in order to see her son again. The victim handed over the money in Queenstown.
The two men were also charged in court last week for another similar scam carried out on Oct 14.
In that incident, the pair allegedly told a victim that her daughter had been kidnaped and demanded a ransom of $5,400.
The victim was asked to put the money in a red plastic bag and leave it under a tree in Punggol Park.
However, in this case, the victim called the police.
Police officers, who were keeping a look-out, swooped in and arrested them when the men came to collect the cash. About 20 victims lost $322,000 in the first half of this year to the kidnap scam, police said.