S'pore man, 49, scammed out of S$80,000 by woman he had talked to online for 3 years, gets scammed by fake lawyer while trying to get money back - Mothership

A Singaporean engineer met a woman online and ended up speaking to her for three years.

Unfortunately, she managed to convince him to "invest" with her and scammed him out of S$80,000.

Singapore Chinese-language media Shin Min Daily reported that the man, going only by Lee, 49, met the woman on Facebook in 2023. 

Under the moniker "Yu Ting", she claimed to be a long-term overseas resident from Singapore who owned property in Sentosa Cove.

The two started conversing via Facebook Messenger before moving to WhatsApp, where they chatted on-and-off for three years. Lee said that they would check in on each other every month or so.

Not long after, Yu began to inquire if he was interested in investing together by selling goods through an online store, promising him easy commissions of fifteen per cent.

She told him that it was a form of dropshipping, which involved Lee placing orders for goods to suppliers on customers' behalf.

As the middleman, Lee was told that he had to pay for the goods in advance, only receiving commissions once he sold the goods to the customers.

She repeatedly asked Lee to be part of this over the three years they conversed.

However, he felt suspicious as she would decline to talk to him over video calls or meet him in person.

In June 2026, she brought up the investment "opportunity" again, saying that she was returning to Singapore soon to further her career.

He asked her to send a photo of herself to prove she was real.

She sent him several photos of herself in her purported daily life, including one where she sat on a hotel bed dressed in pajamas and another in a white dress holding a wine glass.

Lee eventually invested S$80,000 within a month.

Initially, he claimed, he followed her instructions to place orders accordingly and received the commissions.

However, as time went on, the orders kept getting larger.

When he was unable to complete an order of about S$40,000, the system that he was using locked his account, prompting him to wire more funds to restore access.

Even after he transferred more money, Yu Ting told him that he had "missed the deadline" and needed to top up even more money to raise his "credit limit".

She asked for 50,000 Tether (S$63,794), a cryptocurrency.

It was only then that he realised he had been scammed.

He told Shin Min that he was sharing the story to alert others and spread awareness, as well as hoping Yu would return the money to him.

Till now, Lee says he is afraid of making friends online.

Unfortunately, Lee fell victim to yet another scam soon after.

While he was seeking legal assistance to recover the money, he ran into a fake lawyer online.

Lee told Shin Min that after he filled out a form with his personal details, a man contacted him and claimed to be a lawyer.

He informed Lee that he was able to help him claw back the funds.

Lee was sent a transfer receipt and was told that 60,000 Tether (S$76,552) had been credited to his cryptocurrency wallet, and that he just needed to pay a small fee to gain access to it.

After Lee sent 7,153 Tether (S$9,126) to him, he disappeared.

Lee made a police report shortly afterwards.