Geylang restaurant owner receives fake screenshot of payment, invalid address in alleged scam

The owner of a Vietnamese restaurant in Geylang has taken to social media to warn others after she fell victim to an alleged scam.

An La Ghien – Authentic Vietnamese Cuisine posted a Reel on Thursday (Aug 13), appearing to call and confront a man whom they said had placed a large takeaway order worth $288.25 at around 5.24pm.

When staff had sent him the QR code for payment, he had responded with a screenshot "showing that the payment was supposedly successful", the accompanying caption read.

The restaurant then booked a Lalamove delivery to the address that was provided, only for the resident there to refuse the food and say they had never ordered food from them.

An La Ghien staff and the Lalamove driver both called the man who had placed the order. He claimed it was the correct address.

"Thankfully, the driver became suspicious and returned the food to our restaurant," An La Ghien's owner said. 

"When my staff informed me, I immediately checked our actual bank account."

She then discovered that they had not received the payment after all, and that it had been a fake screenshot.

They called the man again, and their exchange can be heard in the Reel. 

The restaurant received bizarre responses, including him saying that his friend had eaten the food and fallen sick, but he could not provide photographic proof of the food as they had eaten it all.

"When I told him that I would report the matter to the police because of the suspected fake payment receipt and the disturbance caused to our business, he started making fun of me and even made an inappropriate sexual remark," the restaurant owner added.

She warned fellow business owners to "be careful, especially with large orders" and to "verify the money in your account —  not just the payment screenshot."

The tactic of sending food deliveries to an unwitting person has been documented among loansharks and pranksters here, though in previous instances the orders were not "paid" for using fake screenshots but placed for cash on delivery (COD).

Earlier in July, three separate food delivery riders had shown up in short succession to a condominium unit in Clementi with COD orders, only for the resident to deny having placed any orders.

It took one delivery rider 10 minutes to get a hold of customer support and another 10 minutes for them to investigate the case.

He estimated the time wasted had cost him up to $20 in lost earnings and called for the COD payment option to be removed on food delivery apps.

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drimac@asiaone.com