Sheng Siong halted PayNow withdrawal service over money laundering concerns

Four charged after making multiple large cash withdrawals at chain's teller machines

- David Sun

A new money laundering scheme caused Sheng Siong to temporarily suspend PayNow cash withdrawals from its Simple Teller Machines ($TMs) recently.

The withdrawal service allows users to scan a PayNow QR code at the machines to withdraw cash of up to $1,000 a transaction.

But in early June, criminals appeared to have abused the service to launder illicit funds, causing the supermarket chain to temporarily suspend the service from June 19.

It was restored on June 23.

The scheme was discovered after Sheng Siong noticed large cash withdrawals were made simultaneously from multiple STMs across Singapore by the same PayNow account on June 18.

There are more than 60 $TMs at Sheng Siong outlets islandwide.

When the same account was used to withdraw more cash on June 19, Sheng Siong staff detained the people who had taken the cash and called the police.

Four males, aged 16 to 23, were charged on June 21 in relation to the scheme.

They are believed to have responded to "fast cash job" advertisements on Telegram.