Eatery Loses $4,600 After Diner Used PayNow Screenshots to “Pay” for 35 Meals

People always say that there’s no such thing as a free lunch in the world. However, one particular female diner at Home of Seafood will disagree.

The diner used fake PayNow transfer screenshots to “pay” for 35 meals, causing Home of Seafood to lose $4,600.

Eatery Loses Over $4,600 After Diner Used Fake PayNow Transfer Screenshots as Proof of Payment for Two Years

According to Shin Min Daily News, the Joo Chiat eatery Home of Seafood, the halal-certified branch of House of Seafood, lost over $4,600 over the past two years courtesy of a female diner who “paid” for 35 meals using forged PayNow transfer screenshots.

The owner of Home of Seafood, 43-year-old Bob, shared that the diner would order meals priced between $50 and $200. As proof of payment, she would use fake PayNow transfer screenshots, photoshopped to reflect the accurate dates and timestamps.

“We couldn’t tell they were fake at the time,” Bob added.

We’ll give credit where it’s due: Kudos to her for being able to do this and remain under the radar for two years.

Eatery’s Previous Accountant Negligent in Verification of PayNow Transfer Screenshots

Home of Seafood accepts two forms of payment for their online orders—credit cards or PayNow.

If payment is made by credit card, there shouldn’t be much of a problem. However, payment verification is a little more tedious should diners pay via PayNow.

As proof of payment, diners paying via PayNow must send their PayNow transfer screenshots to the eatery on WhatsApp. Payment will then be verified before the restaurant processes the order.

The problem arises here: the eatery’s previous accountant was negligent in verifying these PayNow transfer screenshots.

Essentially, the previous accountant bo zuo gang lor.

It didn’t make it any easier that in order to verify PayNow payments, one must log into the eatery’s bank account to confirm whether payment was received.

Mafan. 

That’s why the female diner’s fake PayNow screenshots went under the radar for two years, costing Home of Seafood over $4,600.

Fake PayNow Transfers Discovered By Eatery’s New Accountant

Home of Seafood only discovered the oversight when they hired a new accountant last month.

According to Shin Min Daily News, Bob requested that the new accountant look through the eatery’s accounts. Only then did the restaurant discover that the female diner had not been making payment for her orders.

Subsequently, Home of Seafood lodged a police report on this matter. The female diner in question has since been arrested.

Well, there is no such thing as a free lunch in the world—you merely have to pay eventually via alternative “payment methods”.

It appears that Home of Seafood will still be keeping PayNow as a payment method for its online orders. With that, the eatery will place more emphasis on the verification of these PayNow transfer screenshots.

The restaurant is also exploring alternative payment methods for its online orders alongside solutions to streamline payment verification processes.

Not the First Time PayNow Transfer Screenshots were Forged to Defraud Others

Last year, we saw a 29-year-old get arrested for defrauding a money changer into exchanging more than $13,000 in foreign currency.

The catch? The 29-year-old also did it using fake PayNow transfer screenshots.

And he didn’t just do it once; he did it twice.

You can read more about the case here.