Foodpanda Executive Jailed For Creating Fake Riders & Pocketing Their Salaries

I‘m a firm believer in not getting a credit card.

And no, it’s not just because I’m a broke-ass writer who will never get approved for it.

I’ve seen, first-hand, the horror of getting a credit card and not being disciplined enough to keep your bills in check.

And it’s not pretty.

A Man With Credit Card Debts

Meet Firathul Fariz Ferhat, 28 years old, and previously a payment executive with Foodpanda.

He’s a normal young man, except he had mounting credit card debts. And we all know how exorbitant credit card interest rates are.

So he decided to go the left way to deal with his problems.

Created Fake Riders To Steal Money

His job was to tabulate payments for Foodpanda’s freelance riders every two weeks on Microsoft Excel spreadsheets.

He created fake riders’ names and identification numbers in the spreadsheets. For the bank accounts to be paid to, he placed either his or his younger brother’s.

Chipping away at the block, he managed to embezzle money under the table for more than a year.

The amount of money cheated from Foodpanda totalled to $7,983.04.

Promoted To A Managerial Position

In March 2017, he was promoted to the role of a compliance manager within the company.

His salary was increased from $2,400 to $3,300. However, as with the increase in salary, his spending also increased as well.

And so, he continued his scheme of creating fake personas on the spreadsheets and paying them.

Caught

In January 2018, Foodpanda’s auditors noticed the discrepancy and asked the company to lodge a police report.

As the compliance manager, part of his job is to deal with such matters.

So Firathul was forced to call the police on himself.

After giving a false statement to the police, where he said Foodpanda “erroneously” paid an ex-employee who could no longer be found, he called DBS and asked them to recall the amount of S$2,546.50 that was previously paid.

And that’s when all hell broke loose.

With that transfer, the name of the account holder was reflected on Foodpanda’s bank statement.

The account happens to belong to Firathul himself.

The Aftermath

A senior accounts executive noticed the transfer on 2 Feb 2018 and alerted the management.

Firathul returned $2,546.50 immediately but only managed to pay back the entire amount on 12 Feb 2019.

He was charged for forgery and giving false information to the police at Kampong Ubi Neighbourhood Police Post.

On 10 July, Firathul was sentenced to two months in jail.

Moral of the story

Credit cards are scary AF. After all, what’s stopping you from buying stuff with “future money” if you have access to it?

So even if you do have a credit card, make sure that the cost isn’t going to be something you can’t afford.