S'pore digital lock company offers S$5,000 reward for info on ex-staff who allegedly scammed customers & firm of S$100,000

His hideout has apparently been found.

Matthias Ang | April 01, 2022, 02:08 PM

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Local digital lock company, My Digital Lock Pte Ltd, is offering a reward of S$5,000 on information about a former employee who allegedly scammed customers and the company of S$100,000.

The notice was put up twice by the company on Facebook on Mar. 31, with the second post including a photo of the employee, named Travis, without a mask.

The notice called for the public's help in tracking him down in the event that he was attempting to flee to either Malaysia or Indonesia.

It added: "Because once Malaysia open up and he manage to escape to Malaysia and hide. It is impossible for us to track him down."

The posts also offered a reward of S$500 for verifying Travis' claim of getting married and that his wife or girlfriend was due to deliver in September 2021.

It said:

"However nobody have seen his wife or girlfriend nor the kid

We need to verify whether this story is true as he took plenty of leaves and off claiming that he need to take care of the family".

Travis' hideout apparently found

On Apr. 1, the company put up a video showing how one could change their personal bank account name to the name of a company on PayNow.

The video also explained that many of Travis' victims were the elderly who were neither fluent in English nor IT-savvy, which was how Travis was allegedly able to demand money from them.

In calling on customers to halt their payments to Travis' PayNow, the company also said it would continue to investigate all invoices under Travis, having checked up to three months of transactions he had conducted thus far.

The video's caption also indicated that Travis' hideout had been discovered and that the address would be sent to the police.

The caption added: "Hopefully the address is correct and we will reward the correct source $500 cash as promise".

What happened?

In a video on Mar. 29, Ron, the founder of My Digital Lock, explained that Travis, who was from their Bukit Batok branch, had allegedly scammed money from customers.

The company, that sells home doors, gates and digital locks said the employee had employed tricks to con the customers into paying him.

One was to change his personal bank account name linked to his personal mobile number to "My Digital Lock Pte Ltd" so that customers who PayNow him via their bank accounts would see the company name and will be convinced it was a legitimate account.

He would also tell customers that the company does not accept credit cards. So, some customers paid him in cash.

Ron reiterated that the company accepts credit card payments and do not ask for online payments linked to a mobile number.

Instead, they will provide a UEN number for payments.

Ron said: "Once you transfer this amount to him, trust me, nothing will happen. No door, gate, nothing will happen."

The founder also accused Travis of giving customers fake invoices and quotations for their purchases.

Adding to this, he said the errant ex-staff gave customers a "special discount" so that they didn't need to travel down to the showroom.

Also, when customers asked for additional purchases, some willingly paid via PayNow, without asking for an invoice.

While Travis was on medical leave after supposedly contracting Covid-19, the company received calls from customers demanding purchases that had not arrived.

This was when they found out that Travis had dealings with customers that were not recorded in the company's books.

"Anything he promise you will not come true as many customers are looking for him," the Facebook post wrote.

Travis' employment with the company has since been terminated.

The company said a police report had been filed.

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Top collage photos via My Digital Lock Pte Ltd