\n<\/p>\n
De Villar was allegedly training to be a line one caller.\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to the prosecution, De Villar could choose between two salary packages: A base pay of US$1,500 with 3 per cent commission, or 8 per cent commission with no base pay.<\/p>\n
She was told that her commission “came from the money (she) had to steal from the customers”, the prosecution stated. De Villar claimed in her statements that she did not clarify what “steal” meant.\u00a0<\/p>\n
During her training, De Villar was told by a trainer that she had a “strong Filipino accent” and the trainer wanted her to “change a bit towards Singaporean English”, the investigation officer testified. De Villar also role played to prepare her for the job.<\/p>\n
As part of the training, De Villar visited a line one operation centre where multiple callers were at work.<\/p>\n
Her suspicions that the facility was being used as a scam centre grew when she noticed callers pretending to type on disconnected and broken keyboards that had been split into smaller portions for individual use.<\/p>\n
By Apr 2, 2025, she suspected she was working in a scam centre and discussed this with a friend who had travelled with her from the Philippines, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n
Despite that, the pair decided to stay because they wanted “to earn the good money”, the prosecution said, quoting evidence from one of De Villar’s statements.<\/p>\n
De Villar also mentioned in statements that she would not have been able to earn the same amount in the Philippines.<\/p>\n
On Apr 7, 2025, De Villar took a test to be a line one caller and then chose the salary package that was commission only.<\/p>\n
She stayed at the Cambodia call centre between Mar 29 and Apr 24, 2025, and was given accommodation and meals. The prosecution said the accused had her mobile phone throughout her stay, access to the internet and was free to leave the premises.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In her statement, De Villar mentioned she had “all the freedom while staying there” with “no restriction or curfew”.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Quoting details from De Villar’s statements, the prosecution said De Villar went out for meals and was even treated to nail extensions at a salon by a group member who had earned US$7,000 in commissions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
De Villar left Cambodia on Apr 24, 2025, for Vientiane, Laos to go to a scam centre there and stayed there until early June.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The prosecution alleged that De Villar made scam calls and sent scam emails at the behest of the group operating the Laos call centre.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“This is further evidence that De Villar was participating in the group’s activities voluntarily. She was not a captive seeking escape \u2013 she was willing to travel to another country and work at another scam centre at the group’s recommendation,” the prosecution argued. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Before she left, De Villar allegedly received US$1,000 and S$300.<\/p>\n
The trial will continue on Thursday with the defence expected to make its case.\u00a0<\/p>\n
If convicted of being a member of a organised criminal group who commits an offence, De Villar could be jailed for up to five years, or fined up to S$100,000, or both.\u00a0<\/p>\n
If convicted of cheating, she could be jailed for up to 10 years and fined.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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TWO CHOICES OF SALARY PACKAGE De Villar was allegedly training to be a line one caller.\u00a0 According to the prosecution, De Villar could choose between…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":57765,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dam.mediacorp.sg\/image\/upload\/s--srg47ajW--\/c_fill,g_auto,h_676,w_1200\/f_auto,q_auto\/v1\/mediacorp\/cna\/image\/2025\/09\/10\/screenshot_2025-09-10_220025.png?itok=3I-bktRG","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4927,1021,3472,11669,2455,22,8908,1247,4291,505],"class_list":["post-57764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-news-sg-global","tag-cambodia","tag-centre","tag-details","tag-emerge","tag-scam","tag-singapore","tag-targeting","tag-trial","tag-victims","tag-womans","wpcat-2-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=57764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57764\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/57765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=57764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=57764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=57764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}