Jared Ang Hsien Loong pleaded guilty to seven out of 20 cheating charges, involving a total sum of $94,463. (Yahoo News Singapore file photo)

A serial conman tricked 11 victims into parting with nearly $100,000 by pretending to sell them genuine luxury watches and offering them bunkering jobs.

To persuade his victims into giving him more money, Jared Ang Hsien Loong, 34, even sent them photos of an elderly woman in a hospital bed, lying that he needed money for his mother’s operation.

When one victim said he would make a police report and demanded a refund, the conman replied that even if he was caught, he would simply serve the sentence imposed but the victim still wouldn’t get his money back.

At the State Courts on Thursday (24 January), Ang was jailed for three years, having pleaded guilty to seven out of 20 cheating charges. The total amount involved in his cheating charges is $94,463.

Bought fake watches, advertised them online

Ang got to know a supplier of counterfeit Rolex watches around April/May last year. He bought them with the intention to cheat unwitting buyers.

Ang made online posts claiming that he had genuine watches for sale at below market price. He would ask victims to make deposits in order to ‘lock in’ their purchase, before becoming uncontactable.

He would also deceive other victims by saying he could help them apply for bunkering jobs, and that they needed to pay certain sums of money for various associated costs – such as enrolment in a course on bunkering practices, uniform and liaison fees.

For instance, on 10 July last year, an interested watch buyer contacted Ang on online marketplace Carousell, and the latter offered to sell four Rolex watches for a total of $95,000.

The victim agreed, and passed Ang $9,500 as deposit in cash. But the conman then became uncontactable.

On 28 March last year, another victim came across a post by Ang on sgrolexclub.com advertising another Rolex watch. The victim agreed to buy the watch for $9,500 but got a counterfeit one in return, although he didn’t immediately realise it.

On 6 April that year, Ang offered to sell the same victim two other luxury watches for $9,700 and $6,800 and the victim agreed.

One week later, the victim realised that his first purchase was a fake. He sought a refund, but was persuaded by Ang to do an exchange instead.

“The accused assured the victim multiple times that the watches he had were genuine, purporting to have documentation like receipts and certificates. When the victim told him that he would send the watches for authentification, the accused told him that there would be no issues found,” said Deputy Public Prosecutor Tan Pei Wei.

Later, the conman tried to delay the victim from sending the watches for authentication, saying that they should go together, or that it would only be fair if his supplier accompanied them.

Ang has made partial restitution of $7,600 to his victims.

For each of his cheating charges, he could have been jailed for up to 10 years along with a fine.