GrabHitch is a great way to do your part for the environment and earn some extra cash.
However, this teenager decided that “some extra” isn’t enough for him, and decided to go for “a lot of extra” cash.
Teen Managed to Scam $26K From 2,000 Fake GrabHitch Rides for 3 Months Last Year
20-year-old Ryan Wong Wei Zhi discovered in January 2019 that there was a loophole in the Grab payment system.
He noticed that as a rider, he could easily book a GrabHitch ride without having to actually pay for it.
How?
By inputting the payment details of a debit card that is linked to an empty bank account.
With a separate driver’s account, he could accept the above booking and mark it complete without making the trip. This meant that he would just input any pick-up and drop-off location and mark it as completed, presumably after a period of time had passed.
He decided to rope his childhood friend, 22-year-old Chua Wei Beng, into his scheme.
So how exactly did they cheat money from Grab?
Well, when this happens, according to Deputy Public Prosecutor Phoebe Leau, Grab will first pay the driver out of their own pocket and charge it to the rider’s debit card.
However, Grab won’t receive the money since the card’s account doesn’t have the money within.
Action
After developing his plan, he started working with Chua in February 2019.
Chua would use his driver’s account while Wong used his rider’s account. All the money earned would be split amongst them equally.
For the following few weeks after that, they executed their plan.
Except for Friday, they would book two trips a day every day by making use of their rider accounts.
Seeing as to how repeatedly using just one or two accounts would be suspicious, Chua bought two pre-paid SIM cards and created rider accounts with them.
In a day, one GrabHitch driver can complete up to two trips and earn $144.
This wasn’t enough for them, so they decided that they needed to expand their ring.
That’s when Chua decided to invite 23-year-old Kenneth Ho Hong Wei, as well as 14 others, by April last year. All these people who participated in the scam were promised a maximum of $400 each week.
They made a total of close to 2,000 fake bookings on Grab and managed to scam Grab of more than $26,000.
Wong and Chua reportedly created 24 rider accounts and 13 driver accounts on the app for them to use freely.
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Exposed
One day in April, a Grab operations research analyst found that something was very wrong and noted that the transactions made for certain accounts were actually fake. This was immediately reported to the police on 17 April.
Unbeknownst to them, the trio still held a meeting in May to figure out if they could do something similar to cheat another ride-hailing company, Gojek, of their money.
Their plan was never executed in the end because the police took them in for questioning within a few days.
The Court Hearing
During the court hearing for Wong, the court asked for reports to determine if Wong would qualify for probation and reformative training. Until today, he has yet to make any compensation.
If Wong is granted reformative training, he would be detained at a centre where he will be subjected to a strict regimen that requires him to do foot drills, go through counselling and others. He will be sentenced on 30 June.
As of now, the cases of Chua and Ho are still pending.
If convicted of cheating, one can be jailed for a maximum of 10 years and fined.
Moral of the story? Crime never pays.
At the end of the day, you’ll have to pay back what you took. And in the worst-case scenario, you might just spoil the market for other Grab drivers if Grab decides that they will not reimburse drivers for bookings that were not paid.
If you require financial assistance during this entire period of time when you are serving the nation, you can opt for financial grants and perhaps approach your unit for more advice.
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