A 28-year-old clinic assistant in Singapore has been sentenced to 14 months in jail after she swapped out the clinic’s QR payment code with one leading to her own bank account.
In the end, she scammed 509 people and pocketed over SGD55,000 (RM184,604), which she ended up blowing on an unlicensed gambling site, according to Deputy Public Prosecutor Gabriel Lee, as reported by The Straits Times.
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She changed her name to a doctor’s name
Amira Nur Hudah Mohamed, 28, pleaded guilty to a cheating charge on April 14 and has already paid back SGD3,000.
Back in January 2023, she changed her PayNow name to the clinic doctor’s name to make it look like patients were paying the clinic.
From January to March 2023, she gave her own PayNow number to around 100 patients when they were trying to pay for their medical bills.
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She scammed over 400 patients
In April of that year, Amira took things up a notch by swapping out the clinic’s payment QR code with her own bank account.
From April to June 2023, she managed to cheat over 400 patients this way.
“She’d do it at the start of her shift and put the original one back before finishing work, just so no one would accidentally send money to her account when she wasn’t around,” Gabriel said.
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The doctor found out about her scheme
Amira’s scheme got exposed after a patient sent the doctor a screenshot of his payment. It was then the doctor realised the money had gone to a bank account tied to a phone number that wasn’t his.
Upon reviewing the clinic’s CCTV, he ended up filing a police report.
Prosecutors are pushing for a 14 to 16-month jail sentence, saying Amira clearly planned everything out.
“She swapped the clinic’s payment QR code with her own, and if this kind of thing isn’t stopped, people will lose trust in using tech for payments,” Grabiel said.
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Also read: M’sian Business Owners Beware: Woman Allegedly Edits QR Receipt on Her Phone to Fake Payment
