{"id":75248,"date":"2026-08-09T21:44:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T13:44:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=75248"},"modified":"2026-08-09T21:44:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T13:44:17","slug":"woman-scammed-of-930k-by-fruit-seller-boyfriend-including-daughters-university-fees-singapore-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=75248","title":{"rendered":"Woman scammed of $930k by fruit seller &#8216;boyfriend&#8217;, including daughter&#8217;s university fees, Singapore News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>A 54-year-old woman gave up a large sum of money meant for her daughter&#8217;s university tuition to a man she believed she was dating.<\/p>\n<p>He eventually ended up cheating her of over $930,000 in cash and jewellery, nearly jeopardising her relationship with her daughter as a result.<\/p>\n<p>In an interview with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zaobao.com.sg\/news\/singapore\/story20260808-9490940\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Shin Min Daily<\/a>, the victim said that she had met 57-year-old fruit seller Kong Jun Yi Jonathan online in October 2020. The two entered into a relationship soon after.<\/p>\n<p>This was the first person she dated since her divorce about 20 years ago, she said.<\/p>\n<p>Kong claimed to be the administrative director of a company. In reality, he was a fruit seller.<\/p>\n<p>He also told the victim that his wife had passed away from illness, leaving him with their 10-year-old son.<\/p>\n<p>The woman, who declined to be named, told the Chinese evening daily that the two dated for more than a year. During this period, Kong would stay at her house from Monday to Friday and go home to be with his son on weekends.<\/p>\n<p>She also recounted how the man repeatedly borrowed money from her and her sister under various pretexts.<\/p>\n<p>These included him claiming his bank account was frozen as he was acting as a loan guarantor, saying he needed funds for the company, or for hospital bills.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the repeated requests for money, the victim did not suspect her boyfriend and even handed over her daughter&#8217;s tuition fees. Her sister also gave up money she had saved for her child&#8217;s wedding banquet.<\/p>\n<p>The woman told Shin Min Daily that after being scammed, she was unable to afford her daughter&#8217;s overseas university tuition which amounted to six figures a year.<\/p>\n<p>According to Shin Min Daily, the victim broke down in tears when talking about her daughter and revealed she had taken out a bank loan to pay for the remaining tuition so her daughter could graduate and return home.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The woman also said the situation took a heavy toll on her mental health, making her unable eat or drink properly. She had to rely on sleeping pills for two months.<\/p>\n<p>She even considered taking her own life, but decided against it for her daughter&#8217;s sake.<\/p>\n<p>The woman&#8217;s daughter also shared how she struggled after her mother was scammed, stating that she too had suicidal thought at the time.<\/p>\n<p>To this, the victim responded, &#8220;My heart broke when I heard that. If I hadn&#8217;t met this man&#8230;&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The 54-year-old woman said that even though six years have passed, she has never truly moved on from the situation.<\/p>\n<p>While she remains strong for her daughter, she no longer dares to trust people when it comes to relationships.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This incident has taught me to be discerning in my judgment of people and to no longer help others so readily,&#8221; she told Shin Min Daily.<\/p>\n<h2>&#8216;His wife is still alive&#8217;<\/h2>\n<p>When Kong told the victim that his wife had died, she did not question him as he had described his wife&#8217;s treatment process and funeral details, she told the Chinese evening daily.<\/p>\n<p>The 54-year-old woman also said that she had communicated with Kong&#8217;s son via calls and texts multiple times, even buying him gifts and helping him with his math homework.<\/p>\n<p>After it dawned on her that she had been scammed, the victim checked Kong&#8217;s marital records and went directly to his apartment.<\/p>\n<p>To her shock, she found his wife there, very much alive. This is when she realised that she had been deceived into being Kong&#8217;s affair partner.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;His wife is still alive. This man is utterly wicked. I&#8217;m so disappointed; he has never apologised,&#8221; she told Shin Min Daily.<\/p>\n<p>The victim also said that when the two were dating, the man had taken some of her gold jewellery without her consent, claiming that his mother wanted to buy her something and needed to know her size.<\/p>\n<p>Despite asking for the jewelry back multiple times, Kong never returned it to the victim.<\/p>\n<p>It was a fake accident picture which uncovered the truth for the victim, she told Shin Min Daily.<\/p>\n<p>The man had sent her a picture, claiming his colleague had gotten into an accident. However, upon searching the image online, the woman realised it was fake.<\/p>\n<p>This prompted her to call the police and report that she had been scammed.<\/p>\n<p>According to the victim, she and her sister found that Kong had stolen other gold jewellery without their knowledge.<\/p>\n<p>Kong was sentenced to three years and seven months in jail on Aug 6 for 11 charges, including deception, forgery and theft, Lianhe Zaobao reported.<\/p>\n<p>During his plea for leniency, Kong&#8217;s lawyer pointed out that he subsequently sold his house to repay the victim $158,000 and has co-operated with police investigations.<\/p>\n<p>The victim said that she has forgiven Kong&#8217;s actions and pleaded with the judge for a lenient sentence.<\/p>\n<p>[[nid:742245]]<\/p>\n<p>bhavya.rawat@asiaone.com<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.asiaone.com\/singapore\/woman-scammed-fruit-seller-boyfriend-daughter-university-fees\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><br \/>\n<center\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A 54-year-old woman gave up a large sum of money meant for her daughter&#8217;s university tuition to a man she believed she was dating. He&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":75249,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75248","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=75248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/75249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=75248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=75248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=75248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}