Woman makes police report after she mistakenly PayNows $500 to man, he files a report back

Advancement in technology has made transferring money easier.

It has, unfortunately, also made transferring money to the wrong person just as effortless. 

Just ask Facebook user Geraldinep Phoa, who made the mistake of transferring $500 to an unintended party, with the incident descending into a case of "he said, she said", and reports being filed by both camps.

In a note and series of screengrabs posted on Saturday (Nov 23), the woman recounted how she had accidentally transferred $500 meant for a friend to a stranger by the name of Koh Yeow Nguang.

Although she tried to contact him in hopes that he would respond, Phoa alleged that Koh ignored multiple calls from both her and her husband and failed to reply to any of her messages.

Based on the screenshots provided, Koh did reply to her husband with a simple "Who?" at 2.03am, and after understanding the situation, replied that he would check the next day.

However, Phoa claimed that Koh subsequently blocked their numbers.

She accused Koh of being "greedy" and "hungry over (her) hard earned $500", not before stating that she had already made a police report against him.

Phoa also included multiple pictures of Koh in her post, along with the name of his business and several of his personal information.

Koh has since spoken up with his side of the story in his own post on Facebook yesterday (Nov 24).

He detailed his story in a series of screenshots of the police report that he, too, had filed, over alleged defamatory remarks.

[embed]https://www.facebook.com/Rogerkoh0203/posts/10157831016227070[/embed]

In his report, he explained that he blocked their numbers purely because they had been disturbing his sleep.

Koh also initially believed the two could be scammers, as he claimed he had neither signed up for Paylah nor PayNow, and hence questioned the authenticity of their claims.

He also alleged that his outlet manager from one of his eateries had been harassed by the couple, causing them to close the outlet almost two hours earlier than normal.

As for Phoa's posting of his photos and online information, he accused her of defamation too.

On top of that, Koh also claimed that he received a call from an Investigative Officer(I/O). Upon calling her back, she had demanded that he "react and return the money immediately" or make a police report of his own.

In a screenshot of the statement that he gave to the police, Koh described the call as "totally impartial" and called it an "abuse of power".

Netizens were not impressed by their game of "he said, she said", and instead scolded the both of them for being immature.

Many thought that Phoa had been unreasonable and entitled for expecting Koh to attend to her demands despite the unearthly hour at which she had contacted him, while others berated her for her negligence.

On the other hand, some found Koh ridiculous for not returning the money and attempting to play the martyr.

In two separate updates on Monday morning (Nov 25), Koh shared that he has not been able to uncover the account that had received the $500. 

[embed]https://www.facebook.com/Rogerkoh0203/videos/10157835349222070/[/embed]

In a video he shared of himself this morning, he said that he will be contacting the IO in charge of the case, "if the amount is being traced and identified that it's been deposited into my account, any one of my 30 accounts."

However, he added that it would take some time as he is currently away in Indonesia and would only be back in town the following week. 

Later that afternoon, he stated in a post that the transfer has not been logged among his many accounts, and questioned how it could have happened. 

[embed]https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10157835891992070&set=a.10150189057417070&type=3&theater[/embed]

AsiaOne has reached out to the Singapore Police Force for more information and will update this article accordingly.

Should you wind up in a similar situation perchance, we found out that you can actually attempt to contact the bank for assistance in reclaiming or returning the money.

rainercheung@asiaone.com