4 men, aged 28-45, allegedly provided foreigners with modified foodpanda app for illegal platform work, to be charged

Four men, aged between 28 and 45, are slated to be charged on Jul. 29 for their suspected involvement in providing a modified foodpanda application and local accounts to foreigners to facilitate illegal platform work.

No need to take real-time selfie

Preliminary investigations revealed that the modified application apparently allowed foreigners to bypass real-time verification checks by uploading a photo of the account owner instead of taking a real-time selfie to log onto the platform.

This purportedly enabled foreign unauthorised users to impersonate the actual account owners and operate accounts that did not belong to them for illegal work.

The foreign unauthorised users were allegedly found to have paid fees around S$50 to S$120 per week to use the modified application.

They were apparently also given instructions on how to install and use the modified application to impersonate the actual account owner and accept job assignments via the food delivery platform.

Acting on information from the Ministry of Manpower (MOM), the police subsequently arrested the four men.

Penalties

According to the Singapore Police Force (SPF), it is illegal for foreigners to enter into platform work arrangements with platform operators, or to impersonate local platform workers and perform work using their accounts.

The four men will be charged with the offence of access with intent to commit cheating.

The offence carries a jail term of up to 10 years, a fine not exceeding S$50,000, or both.

MOM will also be investigating foreigners who worked illegally as platform workers for offences under the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act (EFMA).