Chinese national made purchases worth S$102,000 with tampered credit cards in S'pore, gets 5 years & 4 months' jail

A Thailand-based Chinese national travelled to Singapore, racking up fraudulent transactions amounting to more than S$100,000 on the behest of a man who handed him three tampered bank cards.

On May 8, Liu Hesheng, 50, was sentenced to five years and four months' jail after he previously pleaded guilty to three counts of cheating.

According to court documents seen by Mothership, Liu committed the crimes in the "short span of four days" from Jan. 18 to 21, 2025.

He bought luxury goods, including two Rolex watches, Chanel and Prada bags, Hermès jewellery, and a Cartier bracelet.

Knew cards were tampered with

According to court documents, Liu resided in Pattaya and had a massage parlour in Thailand.

He became acquainted with a regular customer, known as Boss Huang, who gave him three Japanese bank cards to purchase luxury items on his behalf while Liu was in Singapore.

In the statement of facts, Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Yeo Kee Hwan said: "Motivated by greed as it had been intimated to him that he could accrue gains by making these purchases, the accused agreed to act on his instructions."

He was given the names of the individuals he should use to sign purchase receipts and a doctored identity document for substantiation if proof was required.

DPP Yeo said: "Hence, the accused did not know whom these cards belonged to but suspected that they were stolen".

Despite this, Liu nonetheless proceeded with the plan.

Embedded chips came from stolen Amex cards

According to the court documents, further investigations revealed that the cards were tampered with such that the EMV chips embedded in them belonged to stolen American Express (Amex) cards.

The original cards were taken from Yunomori Onsen in Pattaya, Thailand, when the rightful cardmembers visited the establishment between Jan. 13 and 17, 2025.

The chips on the Amex cards were swapped with those obtained from other stolen cards.

On Jan. 18, Liu arrived in Singapore and started his shopping spree a day later.

He made seven fraudulent purchases using the cards at four different retail stores in Singapore, with a total transaction value of S$102,227.68.

Liu left Singapore through Changi Airport on Jan. 21, 2025, carrying with him all the items he fraudulently purchased.

DPP Yeo said: "He then retained possession of the items and began wearing the Rolex Daytona wristwatch as he liked it, though he initially told the police that he had handed over one watch to Boss Huang and paid him for the remaining one".

Owner of shop lodges police report

On Jan. 23, 2025, the owner of one of the shops lodged a police report stating that Amex flagged a transaction that took place at his shop as fraudulent.

Subsequently, the police received similar reports lodged by the owners of the two other stores and a police gazette was issued for Liu's arrest.

According to court documents, Liu was arrested at Changi Airport when he attempted to re-enter Singapore on Feb. 10, 2025.

Five cards and the Rolex Daytona wristwatch were seized from him; three of the cards did not belong to him and showed signs of tampering, which suggested chip-swapping was performed.

Contradictory accounts

According to court documents, Liu provided multiple contradictory accounts as to the preparatory acts.

DPP Yeo said: "The facts in contention pertained to whether the accused had personally tampered with the credit cards, or in the alternative, whether he had acted on the instructions of a third party."

DPP Yeo added that at one point, Liu misled the police by claiming to have acted alone to avoid allegations of syndicate involvement in hopes of receiving a more lenient sentence.

However, in the midst of court proceedings, Liu changed his mind and implicated Boss Huang.

DPP Yeo said Liu claimed he did not have the know-how necessary to tamper with the cards despite having provided the police with highly technical information.

"As a result, the police and the prosecution have expended significant resources to discern the facts set out above."

According to court documents, all items bought in January 2025 have been recovered.