Woman found guilty of scamming ‘superstitious’ family friend of nearly S$50k by pretending to be ‘deity’

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A 23-year-old woman in Singapore has been found guilty of scamming a family friend of at least S$50,000 (around P1.78 million) by promising to help the victim find a husband.

Soh Chih Hui was only 18 years old when he cheated Goh Seng Mui of the huge amount between April and October 2015, as per TODAY yesterday, Sept. 30.

The young woman reportedly showed the then 56-year-old victim a photo of a man the latter was supposed to marry, taking advantage of Goh’s superstitious beliefs.

Soh was said to have dressed up as several deities to trick the older woman into paying her. One time, she dressed up as a child deity speaking in a high-pitched tone, and another time as the deity named Fu Wang, this time speaking in a lower tone.

She also told Goh that the payment was necessary as she needed to “borrow fate” after claiming that Goh was not fated to be with a man.

In the recent 16-day trial, Goh testified that she could not recall just exactly how much money she gave Soh as quite some time has already passed.

Goh also recalled that when she ran out of money, she had to borrow S$19,000 (around P675,000) from her brother just to pay Soh. The suspect also asked Goh to work for her father and give her the salary as payment.

Goh, who was friends with Soh’s mother from school, began realizing the situation in January 2016 when Soh asked her to sell her apartment, according to the report. She eventually told the story to the police.

Soh was found guilty of a cheating charge yesterday by a district judge and is set to return to court on Dec. 3 to be sentenced. She remains out on bail of S$15,000.

For her crimes, Soh could be jailed for up to 10 years and fined, the Singaporean news outlet said. Ian Biong /ra

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