Barry Rich cons stupid Singapore Woman

[limchuanpoh]

Dec 11, 2008
'Rich Barry' conned women
Pretending to be rich, he promised well-paying jobs before cheating them



By Elena Chong & Kimberly Spykerman

Tan Sze Leong was jailed 27 months for swindling women he had met online. He asked them to buy him expensive goods but disappeared before reimbursing them. -- ST PHOTO: WONG KWAI CHOW

MS WONG was surfing an Internet chatline earlier this year when she met a man named Barry, who described himself as the scion of a wealthy Bukit Timah family.

What followed was an unusual proposition: Barry offered the 33-year-old $20,000 a month to be his personal assistant and mistress.
RICH BARRY?
WHO HE POSED AS

'Barry' of Bukit Timah, who belongs to a wealthy family and had a personal driver.
... more

Ms Wong, whose name has been changed, would have to cover job-related expenses out of pocket. But Barry said she would be reimbursed and his banker would pay her monthly salary.

Ms Wong took the position and over the course of four days in June, shelled out $20,000 on mobile phones for Barry and designer bags for his girlfriend.

But after handing over the haul she never saw him again.

That was because Barry, it turns out, was really a 28-year-old unemployed man named Tan Sze Leong who lived in a Jurong West HDB flat.

Yesterday, he was sentenced to 27 months in jail for swindling Ms Wong and three other women between August 2007 and June this year.

Using little else besides screen names like 'Wealthy Guy' and the e-mail address [email protected], Tan cheated his victims out of $25,000 worth of cash, Gucci bags and mobile phones, among other things.

In a district court yesterday, a bespectacled Tan stood in the dock, his face largely expressionless as the sentence came down.

Tan had pleaded guilty last Friday to seven cheating charges. Only $4,800 worth of the loot he swindled has been recovered. Deputy Public Prosecutor Gordon Oh pressed for a stiff sentence, saying the offences were pre-meditated and that Tan cultivated relationships with his victims online.

Tan's lawyer Soo Poh Huat said his client, a first-time offender, admitted to the offences at the earliest opportunity, saving the victims embarrassment.

The court heard that he began scamming women early last year.

He befriended his first victim, a 35-year-old-woman, in February last year on an Internet chatline. Several months later, using the names 'Wealthy Guy' and 'Rich Guy', he offered her $15,000 a month to be his personal assistant. (Though, he pointed, the job did not come with CPF contributions.)

A few days after making the offer, he asked the woman for $5,000, supposedly to entertain a client. She borrowed the money from her sister - and never saw the cash again.

Tan pulled similar scams on another pair of young women this year, borrowing a cellphone and laptop computer, only to disappear.

But his most audacious scam came in June this year after he met Ms Wong on a website called Singapore 30 Plus.

Calling himself Barry, Tan boasted that he came from a wealthy family, lived in Bukit Timah and had a personal driver.

In an interview with The Straits Times yesterday, Ms Wong said she met him for the first time in the Jurong Point shopping centre the day after that online chat.

He was dressed in bermudas and a T-shirt. 'Barry' was average-looking, she said, but had a silver tongue, claiming his father owned a Singapore semiconductor company.

He offered her the job of personal assistant and a $20,000 salary. She admitted to being shocked by the proposition, but quickly forgot about her fears.

'I imagined what I could do with that sort of money,' she recalled yesterday.

According to court documents, Tan said she had to provide him with 'sexual services', though the documents did not say whether the pair were intimate. Ms Wong denied that sex was part of the deal and said she never slept with Tan.

On June 15, Tan took Ms Wong to Takashimaya Shopping Centre where she bought two Gucci handbags for $2,420. Tan said they were for his girlfriend, according to court papers.

Over the next two days, Ms Wong bought him a $990 Louis Vuitton bag and almost $16,000 worth of mobile phones.

Then, he disappeared from her life.

'I am still paying for the mistake,' said Ms Wong, who is facing a mountain of credit card debt she estimated at $30,000.

'It's gratifying to know that he is being punished. But it's impossible to measure the trauma.'

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[EatNDrink]

When i read this pcs of news this morning, i can only draw two conclusions, the women who are con for sex and $ are either too poor and desperate for fast cash or too horny for sex ... their sexual desire overthrow their fxxxing brains ...

[cheongsterjon]

But the promise of $20000 a month is too alluring, how many brothers here are willing to part with $20k a month for keeping a mistress. (of course there are some but not many)

[BAD-MAN]

this guy is really somethings

[tenggiri]

Don't like his face.

[jnlover]

LOL... I don't his face too!
Either he's really good with words or the conned women are nuts
Most S'pore women are stupid... yet demand high high

[LostALau]

Originally Posted by jnlover

LOL... I don't his face too!
Either he's really good with words or the conned women are nuts
Most S'pore women are stupid... yet demand high high

It is all due to greed and/or desperation for money. This applies to all, men or women. If a rich lady offers me a job that pays $20k a month plus sex, I will go for it. I will fuck her upside down and as for the money ? U think I so stupid to believe it meh. Just want a fuck only. Hahaha!

[Sharpshooter]

singapore needs more ppl like barry to cheat all these snobbish & materialistic s'porean women who think their pu**y got diamonds
they would rather be a spg , spending their hard earned moolah on white trash whose mission in life ( or in S'pore ) is to get free bonks and free booze
only top Cat150 in geylang makes 20Gs a month LOL

[Angelsonline]

Frankly speaking... I look at the case and i laughed... Looks like singapore women are really becoming bimbos (too bad they have no brains and no boobs too) nowadays.

Please grow a brain at least (best if they can grow breasts too).

Where in the world would you have a rich man's son going around the internet chatlines looking for people to work for him? he can jolly well get his 'slaves' to help him find one if he needs a mistress cum PA. And if he needs a proper worker, he can just easily get one thru the employment agencies.

What's more. If he owns a semi-conductor company, i am sure he can easily find a whole bunch of FBs from the girls who work in the lines.

So to the ladies who are part of SBF, PLEASE educate your fellow female counterparts and ask them to do the same for their counterparts. There is no such thing as a free meal in the world. Even that Toto or 4D winning you had is the result of putting in that few miserable dollars.

[dolp]

Originally Posted by cheongsterjon

But the promise of $20000 a month is too alluring, how many brothers here are willing to part with $20k a month for keeping a mistress. (of course there are some but not many)

Indeed alluring but the woman should at least get 10k as deposit lolz .... only seeing is believing .. when I see it in my bank account then its real lolz

[LostALau]

Originally Posted by dolp

Indeed alluring but the woman should at least get 10k as deposit lolz .... only seeing is believing .. when I see it in my bank account then its real lolz

If they put 10k in your bank account to convince u and once u are convinced they ask u to take out 100k then u will be down with 90k

[cheongsterjon]

Don't like his face too.

[tomvoyeur]

Lets dun chatise the women too much - I see more stupid men throwing their money at ladies that did not even hide their intentions that they are after their money lol....

[risingeast]

This also prove Spore women also rich and willing to throw money for some return - either sex or love or attention or fun.

[AirAsia]

I looked at his face left, right, centre also cannot believe he look like one rich guy... How does the women believe??