SINGAPORE — After being scammed on Carousell, a teenager felt that such scams were "lucrative" and cheated eight people of more than S$1,800 by promising them game credits.

The 17-year-old, who cannot be named under the Children and Young Persons Act, pleaded guilty on Tuesday (Oct 20) to two charges of cheating. Another six charges will be taken into consideration for sentencing.

The court heard that the teen was scammed by an unidentified person on Carousell in 2019. 

After this, "he realised that running a Carousell scam was lucrative and decided to do so as he wanted more cash to join his friends for activities", said Deputy Public Prosecutor Ang Siok Chen.

The teen, who was a student at the time, began scamming people on Carousell this year. He put up advertisements on the platform saying he was selling game credits for online multiplayer game Growtopia. He also cheated other victims by promising them credits for games such as MapleStory.

To avoid detection, he used several user accounts to post the advertisements and induced victims to transfer money to his bank account via PayNow, without transferring any in-game credits in return.

Between January and May this year, the teen cheated eight people of a total of S$1,810.

The amounts ranged between S$20 and S$805. The victim who was cheated of S$805 managed to locate the teen and got him to return the money.

The prosecutor said the teen has no previous convictions and asked the court to call for both probation and reformative training centre suitability reports.

"There's a need for deterrence, considering the cheating took place over multiple occasions and the accused had benefited," she said.

However, she acknowledged that the teen has no prior convictions and is a young offender. She reserved her position on sentence pending both reports.

In mitigation, the teen said: "I've learned my lesson and I hope I can be given a second chance, your honour."

He was remanded for observation for the preparation of the report assessing his suitability for reformative training.

For cheating, he could be jailed for up to 10 years and fined.

He will return to court for sentencing on Oct 27. CNA

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