Article written by Eugene Chow and published on Channel News Asia on the 27th of December 2024.
Organisations that help such workers, employment agencies and banks said they are doing their part to help the situation.
SINGAPORE: Domestic helper “Gina” met someone on a dating app in 2018.
They got into a virtual relationship, but instead of a fairytale ending, she found herself unwittingly pulled into a money mule syndicate.
She said: “It seemed like happy moments. And then after that he told me: ‘You see, I have a business in the country you live right now and I need people to help me.’”
Gina, who was then 31 years old and had been working here for about six years, fell for his ruse.
She asked him what help he needed, and was asked to withdraw money that had been deposited into her bank account and transfer it into another.
When she later tried to withdraw her salary, the bank told her that her account had been frozen. She was then contacted by the police and her employer was informed.
Unbeknownst to her, she had ended up transferring illegal proceeds totalling about S$30,000 (US$22,000).
Her employer was angry with her and terminated her contract. Gina was to be deported, but a case worker at the Centre for Domestic Employees (CDE) shelter helped to appeal this decision, while providing her with counselling and emotional support.
