S'pore man, 28, scams 25 people S$115,000 with Pokémon & One Piece cards to buy soccer cards

A man in Singapore promised some 25 people that he would get them Pokémon and One Piece trading cards, but instead used their money, totalling about S$115,000, to fund his watch and soccer trading card-collecting hobbies.

When Aizil A Rahim, 28, started to feel the heat from his customers, he went to the police to say that he had been scammed by his "supplier" named "Nagashima".

However, "Nagashima" turned out to be a fake persona Aizil concocted to prove to his customers that he was "not a scammer".

The truth came out after several victims reported Aizil to the police, and he was arrested on Jul. 4, 2023.

Started selling cards in 2022

Since around 2021 to early 2022, Aizil was the owner of two Carousell accounts which he frequently used as he started to develop an interest in collecting Pokémon and One Piece trading cards.

Around October 2022, Aizil started selling the trading cards as he knew they were expensive.

He first started by taking “pre-orders” from customers who ordered trading cards from him.

Aizil was initially able to source trading cards such as the “One Piece OTO3” cards fully from a local supplier and fulfil all his orders.

Became addicted to collecting watches

However, around April 2023, Aizil started to get addicted to buying watches as he found their designs interesting.

These watches ranged from Tomaz watches, ranging from S$100 to S$900, to Tag Heuer watches, ranging from S$700 to S$1,500 and finally, a Cartier watch, which cost him S$3,200.

He estimated that he spent more than S$30,000 on his watch-collecting hobby.

Aizil also grew addicted to collecting expensive soccer trading cards since March 2023.

For this hobby, he estimated that he spent more than S$10,000.

Around the same time, Aizil was on no-pay leave from his work and looked for a means to obtain a “steady source of income”.

He thus devised a plan to obtain funds by taking pre-orders for trading cards on Carousell.

The plan

Aizil's plan involved using money obtained from pre-orders to repay or fulfil the previous batch of orders.

From around February or March 2023, he started to advertise on his Carousell accounts pre-orders for "Pokémon 151" cards, which were scheduled to be officially released on Jun. 16, 2023.

He would advertise these pre-orders for S$1,700 to S$1,860 per case for pre-orders and S$2,100 to S$2,200 per case for non-pre-orders.

Aizil admitted that many of the customers of the first wave of pre-orders were returning customers because he had “already gained their trust and obtained positive ratings from them, which allowed him to get new customers as well”.

The customers transferred the money to Aizil via PayNow or PayLah!, believing that he would deliver the cards once they were released.

However, Aizil instead used the money to fund his lifestyle expenses —  watch purchases, expensive soccer trading cards, food, shopping, a staycation, buying stocks on MooMoo and betting on soccer at Singapore Pools.

He also bought a watch cabinet using the money to store all the watches he had bought.

When the time approached for him to deliver the cards, he launched another pre-order advertisement for the period of July to October 2023.

He intended to use the money from this round of orders to refund or fulfil his obligations from the first wave of pre-orders.

If there was any shortfall, he planned to first borrow money from his nine siblings or attempt to pay off his customers by taking up a job as a Grab walker and freelance videographer.

Aizil admitted that “[his] intent was to never deliver the orders to [his] customers”.

Made excuses to customers

Whenever customers chased Aizil for their orders, he would come up with excuses, including claiming that the trading cards had been detained by the Singapore Customs and that he had been hospitalised due to an accident.

His scheme eventually failed when he was unable to raise the funds to refund his customers or to partially fulfil orders when the price of "Pokémon 151" cards increased from S$1,700 to S$2,800 or even higher.

Wanting to avoid suspicion and convince his buyers that he was not a scammer, Aizil went to the police on Jun. 28 to say that he was scammed by his supplier, a Japanese man named “Nagashima”.

He also fabricated evidence by using two phones he owed to fabricate a conversation between himself and "Nagashima".

Aizil admitted that he had pretended to ask "Nagashima" for tracking details because one of the victims had been pressing him for them.

Between Jun. 29 and Jul. 28, 2023, a total of 25 victims lodged police reports saying they had been cheated by Aizil.

On Jul. 4, 2023, Aizil was arrested by the police and eventually admitted to his lies on Jul. 5.

The total amount Aizil cheated from his customers comes up to S$114,885, with one customer being cheated of S$34,000.

Jailed

Aizil has since made a restitution of S$9,400.

He pleaded guilty to nine counts of criminal breach of trust and one count of giving false information to a public servant.

Sixteen other charges for criminal breach of trust were also considered for sentencing.

Aizil was ultimately sentenced to 16 months and eight weeks in jail on Jul. 4, 2024.

Top photos from Canva and Pokémon Company