The owner of the viral hawker stall, Mr Blecky Seafood, was recently scammed of S$27,000 by a “customer”.
Mr Blecky Seafood, located in Ang Mo Kio, is well known for being a zi char stall helmed by a Chinese-speaking Indian chef.
The stall’s owner, Mr Devid Retanasamy, shared his experience with Shin Min Daily News in an article published on 9 Aug 2023. According to Mr Retanasamy, on 5 Aug, he received a message from the scammer who alleged that he was an employee of a primary school.
The scammer claimed that they wanted to organise a dinner party for staff members of the school, and reserved a few tables for them.
On top of that, the scammer asked for Mr Retanasamy to order a specific brand of red wine, and sent him the contact of a supplier. The scammer initially asked Mr Retanasamy to order 5 boxes of red wine, with each box costing S$500.
Viral Mr Blecky opens mala hotpot stall next to his AMK zi char outlet
Afterwards, the scammer asked Mr Retanasamy to increase the wine order from 5 boxes to 20 boxes, causing the total price of the dinner, wine and food to amount to S$14,795.
The scammer then proceeded to claim that they had transferred the amount to Mr Retanasamy via PayNow. However, Mr Retanasamy did not receive the money on his end, and asked again. The scammer then explained that the billing matters were still being processed by the Ministry of Education, and that Mr Retanasamy would receive the money in 2 hours. When he asked a friend who worked at the bank if this was legitimate, he received confirmation that procedures like that are indeed implemented.
In those 2 hours, the scammer ordered an additional 16 boxes of wine, stating that more people would be attending the party at Mr Blecky Seafood. Mr Retanasamy proceeded to place the orders, despite having not yet received the money for the initial order.
After Mr Retanasamy paid for the red wine and sent the bill to the scammer, all his messages with the scammer and the wine supplier disappeared, and he could not get in touch with either of them.
In an update by The Straits Times, Mr Retanasamy revealed that he realised that he may have been scammed when he received an alert from the police anti-scam centre that he had transferred money to a suspicious bank account.
On the Sunday when the dinner party was supposed to take place, nobody showed up at Mr Blecky Seafood, confirming that he had been scammed.
In total, Mr Retanasamy lost S$27,000, including the price of the red wine and the cost of his ingredients. He revealed to The Straits Times that he had even spoken on the phone with the scammer, further leading him to believe that the order was legitimate.
We hope that Mr Retanasamy will be able to recover his losses and that the scammers will be brought to justice.
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Mr Blecky Seafood
Blk 603, Ang Mo Kio Avenue 5, Singapore 560603
Mr Blecky Seafood
Blk 603, Ang Mo Kio Avenue 5, Singapore 560603
