Woman Loses $461,116 in Fruit Ad Phishing Scam as 22-Year-Old Money Mule Sentenced to 15 Months

By
Loh Huey Xin
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Could you imagine fruits that cost over $460,000?

Reader: Are those fruits from the Garden of Eden?

Uh, I don’t think so. 

Well, in July 2023, an unfortunate 57-year-old woman who wanted to buy fruits online lost $461,116 to a phishing scam.

The 22-year-old defendant Yang Li Hao (name transliterated from Mandarin) was sentenced to 15 months in prison on Tuesday morning (11 Mar 2025).

Here’s what happened.

Online Fruit Ad Leads to Major Financial Loss

The 57-year-old victim lost over $461,116 within just three days after responding to an online fruit advertisement that turned out to be an elaborate phishing scam.

The scam began when the woman clicked on a Facebook advertisement to purchase fruit.

Following detailed instructions from someone posing as a “fruit vendor,” she downloaded what she believed was a shopping application on her mobile phone.

The application, however, turned out to be malicious software (malware) designed to gain unauthorized access to her banking information.

Through this malware, a criminal group executed multiple illegal transfers from her bank account over three days, resulting in a total loss of $461,116.

The victim only discovered the unauthorized transactions after the funds had already been transferred to 34 different bank accounts, making recovery extremely difficult.

According to court documents, the transfers occurred between 23 Jul and 26 Jul 2023, with the victim filing a police report on 27 Jul after discovering the fraudulent activity.

Money Mule Operation Uncovered

Yang Li Hao, 22, has been identified as one of the individuals involved in the money laundering aspect of the scam.

Police investigations revealed that Yang withdrew $45,000 from one of the accounts where the victim’s money had been transferred.

Court records show that Yang made nine separate withdrawals between 24 Jul and 25 Jul 2023, systematically extracting portions of the stolen funds.

Each withdrawal was carefully timed and executed at different ATM locations to avoid detection by banking security systems.

Yang has been charged under the Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Serious Crimes (Confiscation of Benefits) Act for his role in handling the proceeds of crime.

He pleaded guilty to these charges on Tuesday morning (11 Mar 2025).

He was sentenced to 15 months in jail and will begin to serve his sentence on 11 April 2025.

Defendant Recruited Through Telegram

During police interrogation, Yang stated that he was added to a Telegram group in April 2023 where anonymous administrators offered “quick money-making opportunities” to members.

After expressing interest in these opportunities, Yang was moved to another private group where he received specific instructions on how to withdraw money from various ATM locations across Singapore.

For each successful transaction, Yang earned between $50 and $300 as commission.

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Loh Huey Xin