S'porean man, 29, got free laptops using PayPal glitch but felt guilty & lodged police report, gets detention order

A 29-year-old Singaporean man was given a 14-day short detention order on Jun. 23, 2026, after he had been roped into a scheme to deceive tech companies into delivering laptops for free using a PayPal glitch.

Jonathan Wee Jianwei will also have to carry out 70 hours of community service within a year.

Charges

CNA reported that a short detention order is a community sentence that results in no criminal record and serves as a deterrent, as it allows an offender to experience prison life.

Charge sheets and court documents seen by Mothership stated that though Wee recruited four of his friends into the fraudulent scheme, he later lodged a police report out of guilt.

In addition, he made restitution for himself and the friends he recruited.

According to CNA, Wee pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to deceive Lenovo, with another two charges taken into consideration during sentencing.

2019

Court documents stated that in late 2019, 31-year-old co-accused Calvin Fong Jun Jie contacted 31-year-old Alden Low Yoong Theng whom he knew from primary school.

Fong told Low that he had an opportunity to make money through a scheme that involved purchasing laptops, with the money eventually being returned to Low after the laptops were delivered.

To demonstrate the scheme's legitimacy, the pair met up, and Fong used his PayPal account to pay for laptops.

The payment was then deducted from Low's bank account, and Fong assured Him that the money would be refunded to his account within a week.

After the laptops were delivered to Low's address, Fong collected them and paid Low about 40 per cent of the purchase price as commission.

Upon checking his bank account, Low found that the money he paid to purchase the laptops had indeed been refunded as promised.

2020

Sometime in February 2020, Low introduced the scheme to Wee, as they had served in the army together and were friends.

Explaining the scheme, Low said participants would link their bank account to their PayPal account, empty their bank account, and leave only S$100 in it.

Low would then transfer money to their bank account to buy the laptops online, and Fong would control the participants' laptops remotely to place the order using their PayPal account.

Court documents stated that the laptops would be physically delivered to the participants and collected by Fong afterwards.

Due to a glitch in the PayPal system, payments to the laptop vendor were automatically credited back to the participants' PayPal accounts. They would then return the money to Low and receive a commission for their participation.

Low also told Wee that he could earn more money by recruiting others into the scheme, receiving S$100 for every person he successfully introduced.

Agreed to take part

After Wee agreed to take part, Fong directed Low in March 2020 to transfer about S$6,701 to Wee's account to fund the purchase.

Fong then remotely controlled Wee's laptop and purchased three Lenovo laptops totalling S$6,701.40 using Wee's PayPal account.

Since Wee was serving national service and would not be available to receive deliveries at home, he provided his mother's office address, to which the laptops were delivered a few days later.

After Fong collected the laptops, he paid Wee S$670 in commission, court documents stated, adding that Lenovo suffered wrongful loss due to delivering the laptops but losing both payment and products.

Recruited friends

Wee, who earned S$400 for recruiting four friends to join the scheme, told them to create PayPal accounts and download software.

This saw laptops worth over S$32,000 being delivered because of Wee's friends, except for the fourth man who did not participate in any transactions despite being introduced to the scheme.

Later in May 2020, Wee bought two Microsoft laptops worth over S$3,900 at Fong's request by making use of the same glitch.

After PayPal requested that Wee filed a police report to process a refund, Wee did so electronically, where he lied that two laptops worth about S$4,000 were missing from his delivery package.

Genuine remorse

Subsequently, in February 2021, Wee lodged a police report, admitting to having been part of the fraudulent scheme, and said he lodged the report as he felt guilty.

He later made full restitution of S$6,701.40 to Lenovo in March 2026, and S$3,938.40 to Microsoft in April 2026.

In seeking a 14-day short detention order, the deputy public prosecutor asked for a report to assess Wee's suitability for a community service order.

Noting that there was a delay in prosecution of about five years that could not be attributed to Wee, she said he demonstrated genuine remorse by voluntarily lodging a police report incriminating himself.

The offences would otherwise not have come to light, she added.

She also said Wee had made restitution for his offences, amounting to about S$9,739.36, representing the outstanding sum that remained unpaid by his recruits.

In total, Wee made restitution of S$20,379.16, such that Microsoft and Lenovo did not suffer financial loss as a result of the offences.

CNA reported that for conspiring to cheat, he could have been jailed for up to three years, fined, or both.

In July 2026, Fong is set to plead guilty, while Low, who has pleaded guilty, is set to be sentenced then.