👀 A S’porean man, 20, used ChatGPT to pose as a 14-year-old girl online & extort S$20,000 from another man, 21.
➡️ https://bit.ly/3Slpdcn
Follow us @mothershipsg
Full Details 📰
Accused: Anthony Xu (transliterated), 20-year-old Singaporean, ITE student
Victim: Lai Yuhang (transliterated), 21-year-old man
Offences: Pleaded guilty to 1 count of extortion & 1 count of cheating
How the scheme was planned
- Motive: Xu learned a female friend was persistently chatted up by Lai; wanted to expose & humiliate Lai
- Planned a honey trap scam: used ChatGPT for ideas + Instagram short videos for reference
- Posed online as a 14-year-old girl, built an online romantic/flirty connection with Lai with the female friend’s help
The incident (Oct 21, 2025)
- Met at an MRT station; Xu then pretended to be the “girl’s older brother”
- Threatened Lai: forced him to take out a condom & filmed it, took photo of his NRIC; threatened to call police/staff
- Continued threats while moving to Toa Payoh; terrified Lai cried & begged for mercy
- Demanded S$20,000 “hush money”, allowed payment over 5 years (S$300/month)
- Lai paid only S$100 early next morning, no further payments
Remorse & arrest
- Xu felt guilty: returned the S$100 next day & messaged Lai’s mother to apologise
- Unaware Lai had already filed a police report; arrested the next day & charged
Court updates (Aug 6, 2026)
- Defence cited early guilty plea, full cooperation, genuine remorse & family support seeking lighter sentence
- Judge ordered a suitability assessment for probation & reformative training
- Case adjourned to Aug 13, sentencing fixed for Sep 23
Source: Mothership, Shin Min Daily News, Lianhe Zaobao
‘Which black and white you want?’: Queenstown resident gets monochrome form to vote on HDB block colours
The town council said that the forms were not meant to serve as "primary reference for the colour schemes".
⚫️⚪️ https://stmp.sg/q7tL
@stompteam
Full Details: ‘Which black and white you want?’: Queenstown resident gets monochrome form to vote on HDB block colours
- Incident: A Queenstown resident (TikTok user @mai_chiato) shared her confusion in an Aug 7 video, after receiving a black-and-white feedback form meant for choosing colour schemes to repaint HDB blocks at Stirling Road . She joked, “Which black and white you want?” and “Omg why feel like exam? What if I choose wrong colour?”, as the three options looked identical in monochrome .
- Context: The repainting is part of the Repairs & Redecoration (R&R) Programme, covering Blocks 165–171 Stirling Road . The actual colour schemes are:
1. Light cyan
2. Periwinkle shades
3. Grey + light blue
Forms include a QR code linking to the town council’s online feedback form; full-colour mock-ups were displayed at void deck lift lobbies since March, alongside a polling box .
- Town Council’s explanation: Tanjong Pagar Town Council clarified:
- Full-colour forms were given out initially; low response rates prompted a follow-up door-to-door round Aug 7 by the Residents’ Network.
- Black-and-white forms were only for vote collection, not as primary colour reference.
- Admitted leaving monochrome forms when residents were out was an oversight that caused confusion; they will take feedback on board for future exercises.
- Netizen reactions: Suggested checking void deck samples, joked about drawing own colours on the form, questioned why coloured copies couldn’t be printed .
- Timeline note: Original voting was scheduled to close April 26 .
Published Aug 8, 2026 via STOMP, written by Ethel Tseng .