S’pore Man Scammed Victims Of $500K Using Personal FB Account; Some Were Friends

Heck, why are we still working so hard to get traffic from Facebook then.

Freelance IT consultant, Alvin Ker Jia Jun made posts on Facebook getting investment opportunity seekers to invest in fake investment opportunities that he cooked up on a whim.

He made over $500k from these “investment opportunities” that he posted on his personal Facebook account.

To think that this guy could make over $500k from “fake investment opportunities” and I can’t even sell my brand new gaming mouse on Carousell?

This guy really must be a master salesman and copywriter. Pity that he didn’t use his skills in productive ways.

Alvin swindled over 62 victims for the 500k, some of whom were friends and acquaintances.

The state courts charged Alvin to 40 counts of cheating with 95 more considered during his sentence.

He was sentenced to 4.5 years jail for his crimes.

Promised Extremely Attractive Returns for His “Opportunities”

In his Facebook posts from 2017 to last year, Alvin posted the bogus investment opportunities and even asked his friends to share his posts.

In his posts, he made over-the-top promises about “doubling your investment” while getting a “capital guarantee”. Victims even had choices between choosing from a three-month scheme and a one-year scheme.

To bolster his claims, Alvin also wrote in his posts that he invested in an educational institute and casinos.

Wolf of Singapore? This guy is really, really smart for sure. Singaporeans wouldn’t pay two cents extra if they could get something for free. Or perhaps it’s the lure of the big bucks.

Maybe His Idea Tanked? Maybe…

Alvin actually transferred money back to some of his victims. A lot less than expected but some all the same.

According to TODAYOnline, one victim said that he invested $72,000 but got back only $17,000.

Hmmm, makes me wonder whether he truly wanted to pay back the promised returns “if” and “if” his gambling paid off?

Still, cheating is cheating and it’s still money laundering even if Alvin’s plan was to cheat, gamble, earn and pay off the returns while laughing all the way to the bank.

Tough luck. You can’t turn black money white.

It Didn’t Work Out

Whatever the smooth operator’s intentions were, things didn’t work out.

He lost all the money that he conned from the victims and was arrested during a gambling trip to Vietnam on 5 March last year.

Alvin has made restitution of just S$100,246.

I guess crime truly doesn’t pay.