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Acting on information from the Ministry of Manpower (MOM), the Police have arrested four men, aged between 28 and 45, for their suspected involvement in providing a modified foodpanda application and local accounts to foreigners to facilitate illegal platform work. They will be charged in court on 29 July 2026.

Preliminary investigations revealed a modified foodpanda 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 enabled foreign unauthorised users to impersonate the actual account owners and operate accounts that did not belong to them for illegal work. 

The foreign unauthorised users were found to have paid fees of between $50 to $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.

Under existing laws, 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.

The four men will be charged with the offence of access with intent to commit cheating under Section 4 of the Computer Misuse Act 1993 read with Section 417 of the Penal Code 1871. The offence carries an imprisonment term of up to ten years, a fine not exceeding $50,000, or both.

MOM will also be investigating foreigners who worked illegally as platform workers for offences under the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act (EFMA). 

The authorities will not hesitate to take strong enforcement actions against such unlawful acts, and will deal with perpetrators to the fullest extent of the law.

Photo of the exhibits seized