Indonesian woman, 32, jailed 8.5 years in S'pore for cheating victims of over S$1.9 million, started out selling Taylor Swift tickets

An Indonesian woman, who began by selling Taylor Swift concert tickets, went on to cheat victims of more than S$1.9 million.

In total, she was given 39 charges, according to court documents.

Nila Anggraini Citra Sejati, 32, was sentenced to 8.5 years on cheating charges, among others.

She faced 11 charges with 28 charges taken into consideration during sentencing.

Concert tickets and holidays

The offences began in 2023.

She used her travel booking businesses, Argo Sejati Corporation and Paul Sejati Corporation, to run her scheme.

There were two types of scams: An e-commerce scam, where victims thought they were making real purchases, and a second scam where victims invested in her company hoping for returns with promises to nearly double their money.

She essentially ran a Ponzi scheme, where she used money from later investors to pay earlier ones, and also enriched herself by paying off debt and buying luxury goods.

Nila told victims she could get them flight tickets, hotel bookings and cruise tickets at preferential rates, and that she had Taylor Swift concert tickets for sale.

Victims transferred money to her bank accounts thinking they were paying for actual travel arrangements or tickets.

To make the ticket sales look legitimate, she sent victims forged emails made to appear as though they had come from Ticketmaster.

In one case, a forged screenshot of a Ticketmaster email was sent instead.

She would also make genuine bookings, but make partial payment, leading to cancellations.

The victim who suffered the most losses in this phase lost S$80,285 across 21 occasions between September and October 2023, after being led to believe Nila could arrange discounted flights, cruise tickets and hotel bookings.

Another lost S$21,744 across 12 occasions between August and October 2023 over flight tickets and hotel bookings.

Investment scheme

In 2024, Nila began telling victims she could obtain discounted flight tickets through legitimate commercial arrangements, and that they could earn returns by putting money into her operation.

In one case, luxury bags were added to the offer.

The amounts cheated became far larger.

One victim transferred S$606,800 across 17 occasions between May and October 2024.

Another victim transferred S$344,855 across two occasions in August 2024, believing he would see returns from investing in her discounted flights and luxury bags business model.

Separately, she dishonestly misappropriated S$25,500 that had been entrusted to her.

Most of the victims did not receive restitution.

Her victims included friends and their partners, ordinary travel customers, concertgoers, as well as men she dated.

One of the victims incurred debts that could not be paid off even after liquidating assets and working for more than one-and-a-half decades.