SINGAPORE, April 25 — A Malaysian chef who spent two decades working in Singapore has lost S$6,500 (RM21,000) after falling for a sophisticated scam promising to secure him permanent residency in the republic, as reported by Shin Min Daily News.The 42-year-old, surnamed Lai, said the operation appeared convincing from the start, insisting: “The scam was so realistic, it wasn’t that I was naive.”Originally from Perak, Lai had twice failed in his attempts to obtain Singapore permanent residency and decided to seek professional help. “I thought that maybe I had not done a good job and wanted to find someone professional to help me apply,” he said.In November 2025, he came across a Facebook advertisement by a company claiming a 95 per cent success rate and more than 1,000 approved applications.After making contact, Lai was instructed to pay a “preliminary application fee” of S$300 and a “document verification fee” of S$1,200 between December 2025 and January 2026.He was later sent a letter bearing the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) logo, scheduling two interviews at its headquarters.
Both appointments, set for 2pm, were cancelled at the last minute.Lai said the scammers would call on the morning of the interviews, claiming his documents were insufficient and urging him to pay more to “increase the success rate” of his application.Central to the ruse was an alleged internal “app” that displayed a colour-coded chart indicating approval chances, with red marking low probability and green the highest.He said he was regularly updated on his “progress” and told he needed to reach at least the orange level to stand a chance of approval.Over time, the demands escalated. Lai was persuaded to invest S$3,000 in a company linked to the scammers and to pay a further S$2,000 as a “confidentiality deposit”.Despite the payments, his supposed “success rate” never improved.When asked to enrol in courses costing S$5,000, Lai grew suspicious and stopped cooperating before eventually lodging a police report.He said the scammers attempted to reassure him when he hesitated, even offering to cover half of the course fees. When he later requested a refund, they told him he needed to pay an additional S$800 “handling fee” to process it.“When he sees that you’re having second thoughts, he’ll try to calm you down,” Lai said.He added that the syndicate continued sending persuasive messages even after he stopped responding, at one point falsely claiming connections with Members of Parliament and insisting their services were legitimate.The scammers also set up a 24-hour customer service chat group to handle queries, further enhancing the illusion of credibility.Lai warned that their methods were highly sophisticated, reiterating: “The scam was so realistic, it wasn’t that I was naive.”The case follows a similar incident in April 2025, when a Malaysian couple in Singapore lost more than S$80,000 to a comparable scheme.