When husband and wife Jasper and Alice (not their real names) bought a luxury watch online, they did not know it would be the start of a close friendship with a couple who eventually went on the run, allegedly with S$180,000 of their money and millions of dollars from other victims.
The couple decided to order their first watch from Tradenation in September last year after seeing Instagram influencers promoting the company and reading many positive customer reviews on e-commerce platform Carousell.
They did not see any negative reviews left by customers on the company's Carousell page, which advertised watches with a wait time of two to four weeks. "Everyone said they received their watch,” she said.
The day Jasper and Alice met Siriwipa Pansuk to collect their first watch, she took the couple to a watch shop in Orchard Road to authenticate the purchase. The watch was authentic, and the couple decided she was trustworthy even though the delivery of the watch was delayed by a few days.
She then asked the couple out for dinner on the same day, and they had dinner together at an upscale restaurant in a hotel. After the restaurant closed, the 27-year-old Thai national invited the couple to her home.
“We found that we could click quite well and we became friends,” Alice said, adding that the other couple encouraged them to also start an account on Carousell buying and selling watches at a profit.
For months, Jasper and Alice frequently met Pansuk and her husband Pi Jiapeng, a 26-year-old Singaporean. The four of them chatted, had meals together and went shopping.
It was not a business relationship involving the buying and selling of watches, but a friendship, Jasper said.
“The husband talked a lot about cars, talked a lot about watches. So we had common topics ... and we met up almost every other day.”
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