Unable to find a decent paying job within the country, hundreds of Bhutanese seek employment opportunities abroad. In the process, some, especially those with limited qualification fall prey to scammers. Just a few days ago, the police in Thimphu caught two suspects after receiving complaints from 17 individuals who claimed to have lost their money in the process of applying for better-paying jobs in Singapore. In this story, some of the victims share their narrative on how they fell prey to false promises of better employment opportunities.
A 34-year-old man who did not want to be named applied for a car washing job in Singapore after the 35-year-old suspect, who is his childhood friend, told him about the opportunity.
The suspect also added him in a WhatsApp group along with 36 other job seekers.
He said he took advantage of the opportunity in the hope of supporting his sickly mother, financially.
“When he told us that there are employment opportunities in Singapore and we need not pay the money, we were thrilled since I come from a very humble family. In the meantime, we got in touch with the 26-year-old suspect who promised to take us to Singapore. After that, we were told to fill up a form. Though we were initially told that we need not pay immediately, we got a text later stating that we need to pay 1,500 Singaporean dollars, which is around Nu 92,000.”
He added that he believed the employment opportunity was not a scam since the individuals in the WhatsApp group were all friends and families of the 26-year-old suspect.
Moreover, the 35-year-old lied to the victims by saying that he had also paid the money and showed a fake receipt.
“I am constantly being asked to return the money that I borrowed to pay for the Singapore employment opportunity by the individuals I borrowed the money from. No one in my family is aware of my situation right now. We have been telling them that our documents are still being processed.”
Similarly, a 36-year-old woman who applied for a cleaning job is also left worried about how to break the news to her family after borrowing nearly Nu 200,000 from her parents.
She said “for me, I paid Nu 184,000 for both myself and my husband. I borrowed the full amount from my parents, as the money we earned was barely enough to sustain ourselves. My parents did warn us, but we had full trust in our friend. My husband had plans to try for employment opportunities in Dubai. However, since there is a huge difference in earnings, we decided to try for Singapore. After some time, we started to doubt upon hearing different narratives from individuals in the group.”
She added that they became suspicious of the employment opportunities upon hearing rumours that the 26-year-old suspect secretly travelled to Dubai and Singapore after the individuals in the group deposited 92,000 ngultrum each into his account.
However, one of the friends of the 26-year-old suspect says that the employment opportunity was not a scam and that the suspect genuinely wanted to help struggling individuals.
He said “one of the suspects is my friend. I would say that he did it with good intentions only. I also transferred Nu 92,000 but after we made the payments, the Singaporean man started staying offline and also left the WhatsApp group, hence, we lost contact. So, in the hope of getting a refund, my friend and I went to Singapore to report the case to the police. However, they deported us, asking us to first talk to the RBP. They said they would be able to take action only if they receive an official letter from RBP.”
The victims, aged 22 to 40 years and mostly high school graduates said they were promised jobs at a company called ‘Revvworks’ owned by a Singaporean man.
The suspect claimed that he had to work with the Singaporean man as he could not open an overseas constancy firm after the government stopped issuing licenses.
The suspect convinced the victims by signing an undertaking letter and providing his citizenship identity card and passport copies.
The victims were also made to sign an agreement stating that they will be taken care of while in Singapore.
The police are currently investigating the case.
Tashi Dekar
Edited by Phub Gyem
