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SINGAPORE – While working for a slimming company and a skin care company, a woman invented beauty packages, which the two companies did not offer, and deceived 24 victims out of more than $ 630,000.
Of the total amount scammed, the victims gave at least $ 269,992.82 to Ong Siok Yong and the remainder to the two companies.
Ong, 35, who was in pre-trial detention, was sentenced Wednesday (March 17) to four years in jail after pleading guilty to two counts of cheating. The court heard that the Malaysian committed the crimes from 2016 to 2019.
Assistant District Attorney Joshua Lim said that, among other things, Ong invented a “model package” while working for weight loss firm Bottom Slim in 2016.
He presented it to the clients he was most familiar with, varying the price and terms according to their purchasing power.
In January 2017, he began working for skincare firm Asian Skin Solution, where he continued to offer the “model pack” to customers.
Citing one victim, the DPP said Ong introduced it to him in 2018.
As part of the terms, the woman was told that she had to use the company’s treatment services at least twice a month and regular photographs would be taken to document her “progress.”
The woman was also told that she had to pay the company about $ 24,000 to sign up for the package. Ong then claimed that the company would pay the victim monthly reimbursements of $ 1,166.60 for 36 consecutive months, totaling $ 41,997.60.
The DPP said that to continue the scam, Ong used the cash received from his victims to pay the monthly refunds.
The unsuspecting victim agreed to enroll in the “model package.” Between August 18 and September 3, 2018, she transferred more than $ 23,000 to Ong’s personal bank account, as the scammer claimed that her employer did not have one.
The victim did not receive her refunds after August 2018 and instead received intermittent payments of up to $ 1,000. In October of that year, Ong asked him to sign up for a second “model package.”
Ong claimed that the payments currently pending to the victim would be applied to this second package, which would then “entitle him to more products and treatments.”
The woman transferred cash totaling more than $ 33,000 to Ong’s bank account later that year. He continued to buy more packages after this, the court heard.
In all, Ong induced the victim to surrender more than $ 100,000 and reimbursed him around $ 33,000. The DPP said that Ong misled the other victims in a similar way.
The crimes came to light after an Asian Skin Solution employee filed a police report in June 2019, claiming that Ong appeared to have misled some of his clients.
Since then, both Bottom Slim and Asian Skin Solution have taken steps to mitigate customer losses.
DPP Lim told the court: “Although they refused to make money payments to clients that the defendant had promised them, they are in the process of making arrangements to provide clients with treatments and products to compensate them for their investment.
“They have also reimbursed some clients for transfers made to the company.”
An offender can be jailed for up to 10 years and fined for each count of cheating.
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