A new money laundering scheme caused Sheng Siong to temporarily suspend PayNow cash withdrawals from its Simple Teller Machines ($TMs) recently.
The withdrawal service allows users to scan a PayNow QR code at the machines to withdraw cash of up to $1,000 per transaction.
But in early June, criminals appeared to have abused the service, causing the supermarket chain to suspend it from June 19. It was restored on June 23.
The scheme was discovered after large cash withdrawals were made simultaneously from multiple $TMs by the same PayNow account on June 18. There are more than 60 $TMs islandwide.
When the same account was used to withdraw more cash on June 19, Sheng Siong staff detained the persons who had taken the cash and called the police.
Four males, aged 16 to 23, were charged on June 21 in relation to the scheme.
They are believed to have responded to “fast cash job” advertisements on Telegram.
The supposed job required them to go to the $TMs and use it to generate PayNow QR codes, which they took photos of and sent back to the Telegram group.
Shortly after, the machine would dispense the cash, which they were to take and hand over to another person.
It is believed criminals in the Telegram group were using compromised bank accounts to make the PayNow payments remotely via the photos of the QR codes.
The Straits Times
