Singapore arrests citizen for faking own kidnapping in Vietnam

The unnamed, 30-year-old man could be fined and jailed up to 10 years if found guilty.

Singaporean police last month received a report filed by the man’s relatives saying he had been kidnapped in Vietnam.

The man told his relatives that $15,000 would have to be transferred to his bank account for his release. An unrevealed sum of money, not the full amount, was transferred to the man’s account afterwards.

But Singaporean and Vietnamese police later found that the man had not been kidnapped, but was actually safe and sound in Vietnam. It appears that he staged his own kidnapping so that his relatives would send him money.

The man was arrested at Singapore's Changi Airport when he returned to the country Wednesday.