E-commerce and Internet love scams continue to be a cause for concern, with 900 cases and 349 cases recorded for the first six months of the year, respectively. More than S$22 million has been lost in the same period. This trend has continued into the second half of the year. The total number of such reports have increased by 26% for July to September 2017 as compared to the same period in 2016.
Police would like to advise members of public to adopt the following measures to prevent becoming a victim of an online purchase scam: -
-
Bear in mind that the party you are dealing with online is a stranger. Be mindful that although culprits may provide a copy of an Identification Card or Driver’s licence to gain your trust, it may not necessarily belong to the person communicating with you online. If you are shown a snapshot of an NRIC (front and back), you may check its validity on ICA’s iEnquiry portal at: https://ienquiry.ica.gov.sg/mobile/vCheck.do. Do not deal with the party if the NRIC is found to be invalidated.
-
A large majority of e-commerce scams take place on online classifieds such as Carousell. Since January 2017 till date, more than 800 persons have been scammed by scammers on Carousell. For such transactions, it is safer to arrange for a physical meet-up with the seller so that you can verify the authenticity of the items, before making payment.
-
If advanced payments are required, use shopping platforms that provide arrangements to only release your payment to the seller upon your receipt of the item; and
Police has also observed a growing number of persons who have offered their ATM cards, ATM PINs and bank accounts for someone else’s use. In such cases, many claimed that they were being instructed by their online lovers to do so, for reasons such as needing Singapore ATM cards for their businesses in neighbouring countries.
Police investigation revealed that these “online lovers” were actually criminals based outside Singapore and were using the bank accounts to receive money from various scams targeted at Singaporeans. They then used the ATM cards to withdraw these criminal proceeds from outside Singapore.
Police would like to sternly warn that bank account holders are accountable for any transaction made in their account. If the bank accounts are found to have been used to received criminal proceeds, each bank account holder will be investigated and their bank accounts will be frozen for the purpose of investigation. These bank account holders are liable for money laundering offences and anyone found guilty of such money laundering offences may be sentenced to an imprisonment term of up to 10 years, or a fine of up to S$500,000, or both
Members of the public should always reject requests from strangers or persons you have only met online, to use your ATM cards and bank accounts.
If you suspect that your bank account may have been abused by someone you have only met online, do not deal with the money and inform the police immediately.
Or if you have information on such scams may call the Police hotline at 1800-255 0000 or submit information online at www.police.gov.sg/iwitness. For urgent assistance, please call ‘999’.
You can seek scam-related advice by calling the anti-scam helpline at 1800-722-6688 or go to www.scamalert.sg. Help spread the word and share this advisory with your family and friends to prevent them from being the next victim of scam.
SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE
26 October 2017 @ 3:00 PM