Woman scammed Katong restaurant of S$196.20 by showing doctored PayNow screenshot

A woman tried to get away without paying with a fake PayNow screenshot on two separate occasions at a Thai restaurant at Katong Square.

The owner of Khao Hom by Rung Mama reached out to Mothership with CCTV footage of a woman appearing to show a faked PayNow screenshot.

First incident: scammed owner of S$196.20

The first incident took place on Jul. 6, 2024, at about 12pm, according to the timestamp on the CCTV footage.

A woman appears to be quickly pulling up a screenshot of a PayNow transaction at the counter:

The woman then showed the staff a screenshot of the transaction, totalling S$196.20:

The screenshot looked, to all appearances, fairly authentic.

However, a few days later when the store conducted a weekly sales check and referenced it against their bank account and transactions, they realised the money had not gone through.

They therefore suspected that the woman had scammed them with a fake screenshot.

The store owner, however, did not make a report to the police at the time.

All the same, the store owner shared that they have not recovered the S$196.20 they lost.

Second incident: Attempted second scam of S$138.10

The same woman came down to the store on Dec. 28, 2024, the owner said.

She then tried to show a fake PayNow screenshot showing a transaction amount of S$138.10:

The staff, however, managed to notice that it was a faked screenshot in time to ask the woman to switch to her credit card to pay.

Since the woman made the payment, she did not make a police report on her.

Similar incidents happened at other shops

A similar scam had occurred at a bubble tea shop in Clarke Quay on Dec. 18, 2024.

A woman was caught on camera scamming a bubble tea shop out of a substantial amount of money with the help of a fake PayNow screenshot.

Another incident of this kind occurred back on Aug. 30, with a woman scamming an East Coast Road cafe.

Footage of her alleged scam was then caught on the in-store surveillance cameras and shared online. The clip has since been removed.

The owner of Khao Hom by Rung Mama believes that the woman who scammed their restaurant might have been the same woman who tricked the cafe on East Coast Road.

Though the owner has no concrete proof of this, they pointed to the similar bag and dress style worn by the woman in both instances.

The owner of Khao Hom hopes to raise awareness of such a scam tactic by sharing her experience with the public.

Top photo courtesy of Mothership reader.