The online marketplace has become rife with swindlers, all looking to make a quick buck from their existent or non-existent items. Just look at the McDonald’s BTS meal scalpers, waiting to make some money from desperate xmms (a.k.a. “xiao mei meis” a.k.a young girls).
As for the sale of animals and pets online, buyers should always check the profile of who they’re buying from. If not, you might end up with a hole in your wallet and a phantom pet.
That’s what happened to nine people who bought their magical vanishing “kittens” from 29-year-old Norsusilawani Nani.
Woman Jailed for Selling Fake Kittens on Facebook
According to TODAYonline, she was jailed for three months and five weeks on Monday (22 Jun) after pleading guilty to five counts of cheating. Another eight similar charges had been taken into consideration while sentencing.
What exactly happened to these nine victims?
Back in 2018, these people had approached Norsusilawani—who had gone by the name “MsLittle Candy”—on Facebook after seeing her advertisement.
She had falsely advertised that she was selling kittens, in order to earn extra income as she was unemployed at the time.
Over the course of two months, she had pilfered a total of S$3,050 from the interested strangers.
After they had registered their orders, Norsusilawani had asked them to transfer deposit payments to her POSB bank account. They ranged from S$150 to S$700 each.
To stall for time, she then told her victims that the kittens had to be dewormed and vaccinated and that they could only get them after the procedures. However, she could not be contacted after some time.
The victims later lodged police reports once they realised that they had been cheated.
Norsusilawani has since made restitution totalling S$2,100 to her victims.
Other Incidents
In July of the same year, she proceeded to cheat a tenant of his money as she wanted to lower the cost of renting a flat from her acquaintance.
Again, she took to Facebook to advertise that she was looking for a co-tenant, this time under the name “Wanny Mok”.
A 31-year-old Indian national came across the ad and contacted her. However, Norsusilawani lied to him that she was helping her “friend” look for tenants.
She then gave him her phone number (while pretending that it was her “friend’s”) and posed as the “friend” in need. She requested that he gave her S$350 to secure the room and sign the tenancy agreement.
On 27 July, he transferred the money to her. In order to pocket his money, she repeatedly stalled for time and could not be reached after he told her that he wanted his money back.
Fake kittens, fake friends… what’s next? Throwing away the facade and just straight up commit theft?
Well actually… yes.
Norsusilawani proceeded to misappropriate S$26,000 from her grandmother’s bank account between August 2017 and January 2018, and also took S$8,000 in cash from her drawer.
She was arrested in January 2020 at the Ang Mo Kio Police Division headquarters.
Her defence lawyer, Mr Ng Shi Yang, noted that after her offences, she was diagnosed at the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) with major depressive disorder and has been taking medication for it.
“The period of time in which she committed the offences was objectively a very dark time for her. She recognises the full gravity of her offences,” he said.
For each cheating charge, Norsusilawani could have been jailed for up to ten years and fined.
Feature Image: Vasilyev Alexandr / Shutterstock.com