Man Cheated WDA & Spring Singapore $60K Through Fake Cashbacks

Cashbacks, a great way to get some of your money back when you purchase something online.

Many platforms offer such cashback opportunities but in this article, we won’t be talking about that kind of cashback.

Instead, we’re talking about cashback on a bigger scale and in a more fraudulent manner as well.

Man Cheated WDA & Spring Singapore $60K Through Fake Cashbacks

29-year-old Chia Bing Lun was sentenced to one year and eight months’ jail on Friday (28 May) after cheating two organisations a total of S$60,500.

He took part in fraudulent cashback schemes, the bulk of it in 2016, causing Spring Singapore and Workforce Development Agency (WDA) to lose money.

According to The Straits Times, Chia pleaded guilty to 11 counts of cheating involving S$17,000 and two unrelated counts of methamphetamine consumption.

More than 100 charges linked to the remaining amount were considered during sentencing.

Unlawful Cashback Schemes

He first took advantage of the Innovation and Capability Voucher (ICV) by Spring Singapore.

This scheme provides funding of S$5,000 to small and medium-sized enterprises that buy solutions—with Spring Singapore’s approval—to upgrade their business capabilities in areas such as innovation, productivity and financial management.

At the time, Chia was working as a salesman for Zenith Infosystems. The firm had a partnership with Webstar, which sold a customer relationship management (CRM) system.

Zenith Infosystems then came up with the idea of resellers and sales staff paying applicants to buy their products. So, sales staff like Chia approached potential applicants and offered them cashbacks for buying the CRM system for their companies.

In December 2016, Spring Singapore informed the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) that solution provider companies had submitted bogus ICV claims. They lost S$15,000 and have not received any compensation from the companies.

In his next scheme, Chia was recruited to sell courses by A.I. Industries. Tay Sheng Yang was the firm’s director and Ng Yong Jing was the only trainer. These two men have been jailed in 2019 after admitting to the scam.

According to ST, this scam exploited the SkillsFuture Credit (SFC) scheme. The people who were roped in to promote A.I. Industries’ courses falsely reported SFC claims, inflating the number of trainees who signed up for the course.

For instance, one of the other salesman, Muhammad Hakimmul Hisham Razni, recruited 51 trainees but submitted a total of 102 claims to WDA. Hakimmul also received S$5,100 as part of the referral fees that Tay and NG discussed to increase the sale of courses.

This led to WDA being cheated into paying the firm S$250 for each claim made, amounting to S$45,500 in losses. The agency filed a complaint with the CAD in June 2016, uncovering this ruse. It has since been fully compensated.

For each count of cheating, an offender can be jailed for up to 10 years and fined. His very own “jailback” reward for cheating.

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