4 arrested over roles in providing modified foodpanda app to facilitate illegal work for foreigners

SINGAPORE – Four men are set to be charged on July 29 for their suspected roles in providing a modified foodpanda app to foreigners so that the foreigners could take on food delivery jobs illegally.

The police said in a statement on July 28 that they arrested the men, aged between 28 and 45, after acting on information from the Ministry of Manpower (MOM).

The modified application allowed foreigners to bypass real-time verification checks by uploading a photo of the account owner instead of taking a real-time selfie to log onto the platform.

This allowed unauthorised foreign users to impersonate actual account owners and operate accounts that did not belong to them for illegal work.

These foreign unauthorised users were found to have paid fees of between $50 and $120 per week to use the modified application.

They were also given instructions on how to install and use the modified application to impersonate the actual account owner and accept job assignments via the food delivery platform.

The four men will be charged with the offence of access with intent to commit cheating under the Computer Misuse Act and the Penal Code.

If found guilty, they could each face a jail term of up to 10 years, a fine of up to $50,000, or both.

In Singapore, it is illegal for foreigners to enter into platform work arrangements with platform operators, or to impersonate local platform workers and perform work using their accounts.

According to the police, MOM will also be investigating foreigners who worked illegally as platform workers for offences under the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act.