SINGAPORE — A woman admitted in court that she edited PayNow screenshots to cheat restaurants into delivering more than S$9,000 (RM28,489) worth of food over two years.
According to CNA, Santos-Tumalip Maria Monalyn Bagaporo, a 33-year-old Filipino national, pleaded guilty to four charges including cheating and theft, with three more charges to be considered during sentencing.
Prosecutors said her “flagrant and recalcitrant offending behaviour” required a commensurate sentence, noting she reoffended while on bail and repeatedly used the same dishonest scheme.
Bagaporo began ordering food from Home of Seafood at Joo Chiat Place in May 2022 and selected PayNow as her payment method.
She transferred money to herself, took a screenshot of the transaction slip, and used an app to edit the image so it appeared she had paid the restaurant.
She sometimes altered the sender’s account details to make it look like payments came from different accounts.
Bagaporo sent the doctored screenshots via WhatsApp, and the restaurant processed her orders without verifying bank records.
Between May 2022 and August 2023, she cheated the restaurant into delivering food worth about S$3,892.
She told investigators she did this because she “wanted to order food for her friends and impress them.”
The restaurant manager discovered the fraud in September 2023 after reviewing bank statements and lodged a police report.
Bagaporo later used the same method to cheat Italian restaurant Baci Baci between June 2024 and May 2025, placing 24 orders worth about S$6,168.
She engaged Lalamove to deliver the food, but the restaurant discovered no payments had been made and reported the matter to police.
Bagaporo also admitted to stealing groceries worth about S$739 from a Giant supermarket in Bedok in November 2024.
She fabricated PayNow screenshots to obtain hair treatment vouchers from a salon on Stamford Road, using one voucher worth S$381.50 before staff realised no payment had been received.
The salon director lodged a police report in July after Bagaporo failed to pay for two vouchers and deleted WhatsApp messages with the salon when contacted by police.
Bagaporo later made restitution to Home of Seafood and the salon.
She has been remanded since September and will be sentenced later this week.
The penalties for cheating include a jail term of up to 10 years, a fine, or both.
