Jail for woman who received over $33,000 in scam proceeds

A woman, who was promised a monthly salary of $5,000 if she allowed others to deposit money into her bank account, accepted the offer and later received over $139,000 in it.

The prosecution said $33,750 of the amount later turned out to be scam proceeds linked to three police reports, and one of the victims was a 70-year-old vulnerable person whose details were not disclosed in court documents.

On Sept 9, Siti Aminah Rasit, 29, was sentenced to five months and two weeks' jail after she admitted to receiving the money but failed to take steps to ascertain its source.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Janessa Phua told the court that in 2024, an unknown person befriended Siti on the social media platform TikTok and claimed to be involved in cryptocurrency trading.

The person then asked her if she was interested in being a "credit cashier".

Siti initially did not reply. Undeterred, the person made the offer again on or after March 1, 2025.

She was then told that the role involved receiving money from "customers" in her bank account.

The Singaporean, who was offered a monthly payment of $5,000, accepted the offer and received more than $139,000 in her bank account.

She also took instructions from the unknown person and used the amount to buy cryptocurrency on an online portal.

On March 13, a 57-year-old woman alerted the police, saying she was a love scam victim and had transferred $5,000 to a certain bank account, which turned out to be registered under Siti's name.

The account had a balance of more than $78,000 when it was frozen the next day.

The unknown person contacted Siti again, telling her that the account could not be used to receive any more money.

This individual then asked her for details of another bank account.

Siti complied and this second account received more than $20,000 in total.

She later used the money to buy cryptocurrency on the unknown person's behalf, the court heard.

Siti was arrested on April 11 and was charged in court soon after.