A man in Singapore has been sentenced to jail for cheating victims of more than S$70,000 by claiming to sell health supplements and smartphones.
Link to original article on Channel NewsAsia: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/jail-man-cheat-purtier-placenta-riway-iphones-carousell-2576981
Sylvester See Sheng Sen, 29, was jailed 14 months on 21st March this year after pleading guilty to nine charges of cheating.
Court heard that See deceived four of his victims that he was selling Purtier Placenta health supplement, a luxury health product exclusively distributed by Singaporean company, Riway International. Products could be bought using cash or commission (points) paid out as part of Riway’s membership plan (Riway Network Programme).
At some point in September 2020, See contacted the first victim and proposed to sell Purtier to him. See told the victim that he cooperated with a senior member of Riway’s programme who could provide 40 sets of Purtier products at a discounted price of S$30,000.
The victim was keen, and urged to pay half of the price in S$15,000 cash and the other half in 15,000 Riway points.
See made an arrangement with a third person who agreed to receive 15,000 Riway points in exchange for S$13,500, which was the amount in cash after the deduction of the administrative fee of 10%.
On Sep 21, 2020, the victim paid for the 40 sets of Purtier products by transferring S$15,000 to See’s bank account and 15,000 points to the third person’s Riway account. The victim was told the products would arrive in four days at the latest, but he never got them.
See instead used the S$15,000 from the victim and S$13,500 he received from the third person for his personal expenses, debts and gambling.
He repeated this with three more victims, contacting them and offering to sell each of them five sets of Purtier Placenta (worth S$3,688 per package) for S$3,500 in December 2020 and May 2021.
See also had a previous conviction. He was fined S$8,000 for stealing S$12,000 worth of valuables from his then father-in-law in 2019.
“I do not know whether you took the fine lightly,” said Judge Lee, “but the offences you have committed this time round are serious, and they are many”.
We all want the best deal at the best price definitely but these high priced health supplements have become tools for scammers to leverage on these days despite itself being an effective cellular premium supplement.
Although clinical applications of stem cell therapy are still at a very early stage of science. At this point, it may seem like a dream rather than reality. It would be a leap to perform such therapies orally, moreover, heavily discounted promotional prices?