With the upcoming June school holidays, the Police would like to remind the public to be wary when making online purchases, especially those involving hotel room reservations and attraction tickets. From January to April 2019, the Police have received more than 112 reports of e-commerce scams involving such items. In terms of attraction tickets, USS tickets were often highlighted. Victims either did not receive the tickets or received invalid tickets after payments were made.
Members of the public are advised to adopt the following crime prevention measures:
- Don’t be impulsive – Be wary of online advertisements of hotel room reservations and attraction tickets at cheap prices that sound too good to be true! Do not buy on impulse. Read the reviews of the seller before committing to a purchase.
- Don’t believe – Scammers may use a local bank account or provide a copy of a NRIC/driver’s licence to make you believe that they are genuine sellers. Do not fall for it!
- Don’t give – As you are dealing with strangers, avoid making payments or deposits in advance. Try to use shopping platforms/arrangements that release your payment to the seller only upon receiving the item. Alternatively, arrange to meet the seller and pay only after collecting the item. Bear in mind that tickets may be invalid upon entry as they are duplicated tickets. You are therefore advised to purchase only from authorised sellers.
If you wish to provide any information related to such scams, please call the Police hotline at 1800-255-0000, or submit it online at www.police.gov.sg/iwitness. If you require urgent Police assistance, please dial ‘999’.
To seek scam-related advice, you may call the anti-scam helpline at 1800-722-6688 or go to www.scamalert.sg. Join the ‘let’s fight scams’ campaign at www.scamalert.sg/fight by signing up as an advocate to receive up-to-date messages and share them with your family and friends. Together, we can help stop scams and prevent our loved ones from becoming the next victim of scam.
SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE
31 May 2019 @ 8:00 AM