PUBLISHED ONJuly 29, 2026 2:12 AMUPDATED55 minutes agoBYSean LerA total of four men will be charged in court on Wednesday (July 29) for allegedly providing a modified Foodpanda application and local accounts to foreigners, facilitating illegal platform work.
Police said in a news release on Tuesday night that the quartet, aged between 28 and 45, had allegedly used a modified Foodpanda application that allowed foreigners to bypass real-time verification checks by uploading a photograph of the account owner instead of taking a real-time selfie to log onto the platform.
This allegedly enabled unauthorised foreign users to impersonate the actual account owners and operate accounts that did not belong to them to carry out illegal work.
The unauthorised users purportedly paid between $50 to $120 per week to use the modified application.
According to the police, 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.
Only Singaporeans and permanent residents can perform platform work in Singapore.
In a parliamentary reply to MPs Yeo Wan Ling (Punggol GRC) and Pritam Singh (Aljunied GRC) in September 2025, then-Minister for Manpower Dr Tan See Leng reiterated in his response that the manpower ministry does not issue work passes to foreigners for platform work.
"Hence, it is illegal for foreigners to enter into platform work arrangements with platform operators, or to impersonate local platform workers and perform platform work using their accounts," Dr Tan said.
The four men will be charged with the offence of access with intent to commit cheating under the Computer Misuse Act.
If convicted, they face up to 10 years' jail, a fine of up to $50,000, or both.
The Ministry of Manpower is also investigating foreigners who allegedly worked illegally as platform workers for offences under the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act (EFMA).
The authorities said they would not hesitate to take strong enforcement action against such unlawful acts and would deal with perpetrators to the fullest extent of the law.
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