Arrested: Teenage scammer who swindled Carousell sellers out of their used Apple products

Arrested: Teenage scammer who swindled Carousell sellers out of their used Apple products

Apple products are pretty great, but they’re hella expensive. Such is the success of the tech giant's marketing sheen that drove a wayward teen into being a serial scammer just to get his hands on them. 

In a statement yesterday (Nov 21), the Singapore Police Force confirmed that they’ve busted a 17-year-old boy who had been cheating several Carousell vendors selling their second-hand Apple products online. 

He would arrange a meet-up with the sellers who listed their used Apple gizmos for sale on the online marketplace to make the fraudulent deals. The teen convinced victims to hand over the products to him, assuring that a “scheduled transfer” was made via his banking app to wire the money over within a couple of hours. 

The victims would later realise that they’d been duped after the money didn’t get transferred in the end. It was a ruse convincing enough for the teen to orchestrate at least five cases of e-commerce scams amounting to over $5,000. 

The cops got wind of the cheating teen after they received several reports from victims between Oct 4 and Nov 19. Officers from Bedok Police Division established his identity and arrested him on Wednesday (Nov 20).

He stands to be charged in court today with cheating — a crime punishable with a jail term of up to 10 years and a fine. 

ilyas@asiaone.com

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