A man named Chen Zixiang (transliteration from Mandarin) was arrested after he deliberately injured himself and asked his friends to impersonate kidnappers so that he could extort S$200,000 from his mother.
One of his friends, 31-year-old Jaivin s/o Uthirapathy, was sentenced to seven weeks' jail on the morning of Oct. 26, 2023, after he pleaded guilty to two charges of conspiracy to cheat and mischief, reported Shin Min Daily News.
Jaivin met Zixiang via poker forum
According to court documents seen by Shin Min, Jaivin met Zixiang around 10 years ago via a poker forum.
On Jan. 5, 2023, at the invitation of Zixiang, Jaivin asked his friend, Chen Shijie (transliteration from Mandarin), whether they could play poker at the latter's condominium unit the next day.
However, in the end, the gambling game was cancelled because there weren't enough players joining, and only Zixiang, Jaivin, and Shijie stayed behind in Shijie's condominium unit.
Subsequently, Zixiang asked Jaivin and Shijie to help him extort money from his mother.
Jaivin had to concede to the request because he owed Zixiang money.
Zixiang injured himself to make fake kidnap more convincing
According to Zixiang's plan, he would call his mother and lie to her that he used to be a scammer.
Then, he would claim that he was kidnapped by his victims who located him, and he would only be released after his mother paid the ransom.
To make the plot more convincing, Zixiang hit his left arm and body with a plastic chair before calling his mother during the early hours of Jan. 7, asking her to transfer S$200,000 to him.
Zixiang also sent photos of his injury to his mother.
Zixiang injured himself again after mother said she didn't have S$200,000
After Zixiang's mother told him she didn't have that much money with her, he used a heavy object to hit his left arm again, causing it to swell.
As his arm was injured, Zixiang asked Jaivin to send a message to his mother on his behalf.
Zixiang also asked Jaivin and Shijie to speak to his mother while pretending to be his kidnappers.
Specifically, he asked them to hurl vulgarities and pretend they were running out of patience when negotiating with his mother so that she would transfer the money immediately.
Zixiang returned home after plan failed
Later on, Zixiang lowered the amount to S$20,000, but his mother only transferred S$1,000.
As the events didn't unfold according to plan, Zixiang decided to return home.
He was shocked when he found out that his mother had already alerted the police, and officers had arrived at his home.
It was then that the plot came to light.
Top image via Unsplash