Singapore Scams - Scams in Singapore

Facebook Competition Scam

2013-05-22T10:51:00.000+08:00

It is a trend for businesses to market through Facebook. One easy way to gain more LIKEs for the Facebook page is to hold a competition. Participants may have to LIKE and share the page and its post or an application in order to qualify. The result can be determined by highest number of LIKEs or simply by "luckydraw". The latter is usually a scam since the management has the right to select the "winner" and needs not even to come up with the prize in the first place.

One recent Facebook scam page is "Camera Enthusiasts".

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Camera-Enthusiasts-20/250936505045771

1. The page does not link to any website that may provide advice as stated.

2. It claims that Canon has given them seven 7D DSLR cameras for nothing, which is far too exaggerating for the price and units. Canon is not a stupid brand that does worthless marketing with seven units of such expensive camera. They would rather get their own marketing team to do the job and increase their own number of fans for their Facebook. Other brands such as Sony and Samsung would give away their cameras free only to selected famous professional photographers.

3. There is no detail about the competition, except that the preys have to keep sharing the posts. The preys are supposed to share as many times as possible in order to have a higher chance to win any unit of camera but there is no application to track it.

4. It posts a status "The comment with no likes wins 40 votes into the 7D draw, drawn tonight!" in order to make everyone LIKE others' posts to generate more views in their friends' newsfeed. This is absolutely lame but smart.

5. After the deadline of the competition, the dumb scammer continues to share the post in the page.

6. The scammer is not able to release the list of winners and claims that it is due to privacy. Any decent business page would have proudly announced the winners and persuade them to advertise the page.

We have yet to find out what are the motives of the scammer. It can be just a prank to see a huge increase in the number of LIKEs or the scammer may be selling some products in future.

Singapore Model Kayla Wong Impersonate Scam

2013-05-21T13:18:00.003+08:00

Our own Singapore models have their shares of worries for impersonate issues. Young model like Kayla Wong has also been targeted by scammer who probably agrees that she has a very appealing looks. We mean scammers do not only rip Taiwan or Hong Kong girls' photos.

As usual, Tagged.com (merged with hi5.com) has allowed all scams to be made easy.

http://www.tagged.com/profile.html?uid=5989722970

Kayla knows nothing about Tagged.com nor its existence.

We are not sure of the intention (likely just for the dumb pets game) of the fake profile. However, we do know it's difficult to get these clones removed. The "report abuse" link on the profile is probably workable for the FBI.

After submitting a report, you will get the same template reply:

We will need the original owner of the pictures to contact us in order to confirm their identity. Please be aware that we can only take action if the stolen photo is of the actual person.

If you are in contact with the original owner of these photos, please forward them this message:

In order for us to take action against the user who has stolen your photos, we'll need you to contact us directly from the email address registered to your Tagged account. Please submit your report as follows and follow these verification steps:

1) Take a new photo of yourself.
2) In the photo, you must hold up a piece of paper with the current date and time written on it.
3) Attach the photo to your New support request sent via the contact us link on our Help page.
4) In your reply, please provide the link (URL) to the user's profile who has stolen your photos.

To send a link to another user's profile, please do the following:

-Click on the member's Profile Picture. In the Browser Address Bar, you will see the Link to that profile. It will look like this:

http://www.tagged.com/profile.html?uid=********** ("****" represents a number)

We are not sure how well it will work but we have heard of users having problems replying to the email with attachment of their photos while following the instructions above. Anyway, it's just stupid to follow the steps.

Just a random sideline: Tagged doesn't even have a "remove friend" link on individual profiles so that we can easily remove fake profiles after adding and realising they are hoax.

We predict Tagged.com will eventually be shut down due to the large influx of fake accounts since they have no better way to stop them. With real users abandoning the social media website, how long can it last?

We do love the website for its ease of use and making friends, but seriously, can their team do a better job?

Begging Scam

2013-05-04T14:51:00.002+08:00

From Facebook posted by Farhan Osman:

A warning to all my fellow Singaporeans.

Please be aware of this man.
My friends have met this guy for four times and all of the instances are of the same content of scam.

Recently, a friend met this person at the bus stop outside West Mall. Here are the exact words from my friend. “He suddenly came to the bus stop I was at and he pretended to faint and said he was having an asthma attack and was looking for his asthma inhaler and he lived at Tampines and without it he can’t make his way home as he might pass out anytime.” My friend then decided to call for him an ambulance but he refused.

In another instance, he was inside Tampines MRT station, with the same asthma attack drama and my friend was nice enough to accompany him out of the station to hire a taxi. He then asked my friend for money, but when my friend said he had no money with him, he scolded my friend.

What the person expects you to do is to give him some money for sympathy to take a taxi or to a doctor.

If we don’t do anything, others could possibly get cheated. So please do share.

There are just too many ways scammers can do get money from kind-hearted people.

Former principal found guilty of embezzling school funds

2013-04-24T17:38:00.000+08:00

According to Channel News Asia, the former principal of Maris Stella High School, 66-year-old Anthony Tan Kim Hock, has been found guilty of misappropriating S$67,700 from the school's chapel building fund account between March and September 2009.

To find out more, do read http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/former-principal-found-guilty-of-embezzl/650878.html.

We urge the managements of all public sectors, including schools, to make appropriate decisions when it comes to handling of public funds.

Bogus Repairmen

2013-04-05T18:37:00.000+08:00

From the Singapore Police Force facebook:

Breaking news:

Police have arrested 3 Malaysians aged 20, 28 and 30 who are believed to be responsible for numerous cases of theft in dwelling at various housing estates island-wide by posing as repairmen or contractors.

The "bogus repairmen" targeted elderly persons, posing as licensed contractors from HDB to gain entry into the victim’s unit on the pretext of checking/repairing pipes and leakages. Upon entering, one of the culprits would engage the victim at the kitchen or toilet while the other culprit searched for cash and valuables in the other rooms of the flat. In the latest case reported on 28 March 2013, an 81-year-old woman living at Toa Payoh fell prey to the "bogus repairmen" who made off with $200 in cash.

Police would like to advise the public to adopt the following measures:

a) Always keep your grille gates locked and never open the doors to strangers;

b) Do not allow anyone who claims to be a repairman to enter your house without verifying his identity;

c) If in doubt, verify his identity with his company, or contact your family members or Police for assistance; and

d) Do not keep large sums of money or valuables in the house. Keep the money in a safe or deposit it in the bank.

Some Fake Tagged Profiles

2013-03-22T08:22:00.000+08:00

In the past few months, the number of fake profiles who have posted status in Tagged.com has probably exceeded the number of real ones. However, we have observed some people exposing them directly or indirectly by commenting on the statuses. Sometimes, it's simply humorous.

Anyway, excluding those very obvious scammers who are using foreigners' photos in their fake profiles, we have found some profiles that are using real Singapore girls' photos.

Real owner of photos: Maybeline
http://www.tagged.com/profile.html?uid=5986731523

Real owner of photos: Unknown
http://www.tagged.com/profile.html?uid=5981398712

Real owner of photos: Bella Choi
http://www.tagged.com/profile.html?uid=5980965870

Real owner of photos: Jamie Ang
http://www.tagged.com/profile.html?uid=5987371041

Real owner of photos: Kelly Chin
http://www.tagged.com/profile.html?uid=5984120713

Do help us to report on their profiles - we know Tagged has made it quite tough to report though.

SPCA Dog Adoption Hoax

2013-03-18T18:01:00.001+08:00

Someone has spread a false news that SPCA is going to put thousands of dogs to sleep. It results that SPCA's phone lines have been flooded.

From SPCA's Facebook page:

Dear All

We have been informed that there has been a SMS circulating in cyber space that the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) will be receiving or have received, a thousand dogs from one of Mutts & Mittens’ tenants and putting them to sleep.

As a result of the hoax message, our telephone lines at our headquarters have been ringing off the hook, putting a halt to our Animal Support Officers answering emergency calls, to the detriment of animals that need our attention the most.

The SPCA categorically denies having received any of these animals.

We will take legal action against those who perpetuate these malicious text messages.

Thank you.

Email Attack from Germany Targeting Yahoo Emails

2013-02-14T21:18:00.002+08:00

Happy Valentine's Day to you again. Unfortunately, this time, we are bringing you bad news.

We have detected multiple scam email spamming.

The email comes with no subject and the content includes only an URL. All the URLs are of different domain names but all of them are from Germany with the country code of ".de" just like http://xxx.DE/xxx/xxx. (Singapore's country code is ".sg")

We believe once you click on the URL inside the email, your email account may be compromised as well. Then, the hacker or bot will automatically generate emails with similar URLs to mass send to the email addresses inside your address book or contact list.

We have no idea if your system will be affected. However, so far, all the affected emails are from Yahoo, including yahoo.com and yahoo.com.sg.

If you have received such email from your friend, please notify him/her immediately. The affected person should change the email account's password, notify all his/her friends inside the address book or contact list, then do a full system scan on the system using any anti-virus software.

We would like to remind everyone not to click on any URL from any random email even though the sender is your friend.

Happy Valentine's Day - Find Tagged Fake Profiles

2013-02-14T08:48:00.000+08:00

Hey everyone! Happy Valentine's Day!

This entry is a little Valentine's Day present for you as we will be touching up on a simple way to discover some of the fake social network profiles. Of course, this is just a small portion of them.

For Tagged.com (or Facebook) users who have added many "chiobus" in your account, there is a very high possibility that many profiles in your friend list are fake. There are many types of scammers in Tagged.com and luckily, scammers who sign up for additional fake accounts are mainly for the sake of playing the Pets game to increase their Pet values. Apart from that, there are scammers who use fake accounts to spam for their services and websites, including for whatever "swingers' parties". Some fake profiles are more "deadly" since they are used to fool horny guys to show off their private parts in webcam before extorting the lost sheep, while a few are owned by oversized girls who is lack of attention from guys.

We have a Tagged.com account with quite a large number of "female" friends. If you own an account as well, you would know that Tagged.com would give notification if any of your friends' birthdays falls on the current day. Usually, we have ten to twenty friends who have the same birthday on each day but we have a surprise on Valentine's Day.

We actually have 41 friends who have the same birthday and it happens to fall on Valentine's Day, which is so amazing!

This is actually not something very coincident as parents do not specially pick this day to give birth - at least to say, they cannot control the exact birth date. According to our analysis of scammers, 14th February is a good birthday because it gives others a romantic feeling. More guys would send you a message with: "Hey! You're born on Valentine's Day and you must be a very romantic girl!" At least, there will be a much higher chance that they would have such fantasy.

Therefore, if you screen through your Tagged or Facebook account, you may find some suspicious friends. For our Tagged.com account, we have blocked around 10 of them who are obviously created for the Pets game. Tagged.com makes it difficult to remove friends as they do not have a link on individual profile page to do that and thus the easiest approach we can take is to block the scammer while he/she remains in our friends list. As for Facebook, the famous fake profile "Natalia Mmk" and another, "Ling Aiting", which we have yet to expose in this blog do have birthday falling on this romantic day as well.

Catching the fakers by birthday can be applied to those who are "born" on first day of the year as well. Many scammers are lazy to think of a date and thus, they would leave the birthday as 1st January. It is also safer to use this date in case the social network would challenge the user for birthday in order to recover the account in some cases.

However, do take note that there are certainly real people who are born on these days too. If you are in doubt, just initiate a chat with "her" and she will be exposed soon with her real motive if she is a fake account.

Happy Chinese New Year!

2013-02-11T08:12:00.000+08:00

We wish all the best for everyone!

While you do house visiting, do advise the elderly on types of phone and door-to-door scams. Catching "Crime Watch" on the television is a good way to broaden their knowledge as well.

We would also like to apologise for the lack of updates here due our personal tight schedule.

We do have many scam stories to share with everyone but it really takes time to type in appropriate way. For helpful souls who have updated us with scam alert, we may not be able to publish them without evidence because we do not want to wrong any party. At times, we may have to edit the article to exclude names.

Meanwhile, let's do whatever we can for all our family members and friends.

Margaux Lee - Webcam Extortion Scam

2013-02-06T15:31:00.001+08:00

Dear all, we have just being notified of another scam Facebook account by the name of "Margaux Lee". "She" is probably doing the same scam as "Jacky Lee". That means she is getting guys to go onto webcam for some "fun" and get them to show their private parts. After recording the indecent acts, she would start to extort the guys for money, threatening to upload the videos online.

We have found a suspicious account (https://www.facebook.com/margaux.lee.12) in Facebook but cannot confirm if it is the same account as mentioned. It seems that this user is a Pinoy "staying" in Singapore.

Please educate all your family members and friends about such scam. Our hearts are too fragile to see more people falling for similar plot.

Email Scam Continues

2013-01-24T18:12:00.000+08:00

There is no doubt that most of us can differentiate scam emails from the rest, however, there are still many inexperienced internet users who may fall into their tricks. Do look out for vulnerable family members and friends.

My name is Mr. Ling Tia Liu; I work with Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Hong Kong. I have a business proposal in the tune of $21,300,000.00 US Dollars, to be transferred out of my bank with your assistance.

After the successful transfer, we shall share in ratio of 50% for you and 50% for me. Should you be interested, please respond to my letter immediately, so we can commence all arrangements and I will give you more information on the project and how we would handle it. Please treat this business with utmost confidentiality.

You can contact me on my private email :(mrtailing@yahoo.com.hk) along with the Following information's for documentation purpose:

(1) Full names:

(2) Direct phone number:

(3) Current residential address:

(4) Occupation:

(5) Age and Sex:

(6) Scanned Copy of Identification

I look forward to hearing from you.

Kind Regards,

Mr.Ling Tia Liu

Conmen Who Offered To Perform Prayer Committing Theft

2013-01-14T17:06:00.000+08:00

From Singapore Police Force Facebook:

Crime Alert - Conmen Who Offered To Perform Prayer Committing Theft

Beware of strangers approaching your home to offer prayers as a ploy to commit theft.

Police have received reports of culprits who approached residents in their flats, holding a framed picture of Buddha and a container for donations. The culprits would either request to enter the flat or enter without invitation. One of the culprits would distract the victim by saying prayers, including giving 4D numbers, while the other culprits would search the unit for cash and jewellery. While perpetrators may vary their tactics in their attempts to deceive victims, their aim is to gain entry into units and distract the victim while their accomplices search the unit for valuables.

Descriptions of the culprits are as follows:
• Three male subjects believed to be Indian;
• Two of them in their thirties/forties and one of them in his fifties ; and
• Spoke to victims in Tamil and Malay.

Residents should adopt the following crime prevention measures:

• Do not allow strangers into your residence;
• Keep your front metal gate locked when interacting with strangers outside your residence;
• Refrain from keeping large sums of cash and valuables in your residence and should there be a need to do so, a safe should be used to safekeep these items; and
• Keep a lookout for any suspicious person(s) loitering outside your or your neighbours’ residence.

If you have any information on the crime or wish to report suspicious person(s) loitering in your estate, please call the Police hotline at 1800-255 0000 or dial ‘999’ for urgent Police assistance. View the following video for similar cases reported previously

Looking for Victim of Blogshop Scam

2012-12-21T08:34:00.000+08:00

Dear readers,

A producer from MediaCorp has approached us for help to search for a victim of blogshop scam for one of their programmes.

We believe the programme would help to enlighten/alert other Singaporeans and foreigners. Thus, if you were a victim of a blog shop scam, or you have a friend who has experienced it, do contact us with your name and contact number. We would forward your contact directly to Manoj, the producer.

Please do not type your contact details into this blog entry's comment.

Below is the email we have received.

Hello,

My name is Manoj and I am a producer at MediaCorp. I am currently working on the webisodes for an upcoming Channel 5 series.

Basically the webisodes aim to educate youth on internet based activities. One of the themes we are highlighting is blogshop scams.

As your website is established for being against online scams in Singapore, I was wondering if you could recommend someone whom we could feature in our webisode. The person should have been a victim of an online scam involving a blogshop.

I hope you would be keen on collaborating with us. If you are keen, please do contact me at [email removed to avoid sender from being spammed]

Looking forward to hearing a positive reply from you.

Manoj

Google Event - VIP

2012-12-04T02:03:00.000+08:00

got a call from UNKNOWN calming that his from google company and said that i got chosen to be their VIP for tml event, oh well. of cause i entertain them ! HAHAHAHA. Sorry mdm how old are you? I'M 40! single or married? Married. Oh so you have a husband. SORRY I HAVE 3 HUSBANDS! Ohhh!!cool! YEA WHAT YOU WANT? oh actually we are giving you $70Cash and $200 Shopping voucher if you attend our event t
ml at 7pm, you dont need to pay anything. OH SO GOOD AH, OKAY LA! so you coming down with your lovely husband tml right? WHICH HUSBAND YOU WAN ME TO BRING DOWN TML?! ehhhh so mdm i'll see you tml 7pm is that okay? YOU HAVEN ANSWER ME! WHICH HUSBAND YOU WAN ME TO BRING DOWN? anyone will do, how old is your husband? 45YEARS OLD! okay later my manager will call you and send you a sms. SURE!! *didnt pick up any phone calls later on, jitao spam me 10 miss call, they sibei free, so i entertain them also HAHAHAHA*

A girl received a call from someone claiming to be from Google and invited her to their "event". It seemed like the unknown person did not even know of her age...

We have no idea what trick is unknown person is up to.

Janice Tan Fake Facebook Account

2012-10-20T23:01:00.001+08:00

Another fake account by the name of "Janice Tan" (https://www.facebook.com/janice.tan.184007) has been exposed.

She seemed to be "flawless" for the past few months, adding guys to her list, updating her profile with statuses and "new" photo, appearing online in Facebook Chat sometimes. Her Facebook account just appeared like any other hot girl's account.

It was only until hours ago when she used another girl's photo, though without the head portion, she was being seen through.

"fell in rain and bump knee... paaiiinnnnn......"

The owner of the photo is called "Eve Lim", an ex model. The photo was taken years back.

When Eve approached her, she blocked Eve in Facebook straightaway, and also removed the photo. It was too late since we had already made a printscreen.

We have no idea what is her motive. The scammer seems to have created a few fake accounts...

Injury Extortion Scam at Johor Bahru Custom

2012-10-17T16:44:00.000+08:00

We are not sure if this is absolutely a scam or insanity case.

We were informed of a middle aged lady who was presented at Johor Bahru custom. She would approach people and accuse them of banging into her that caused an injury on her arm. She would point to a mole and insist that it is an injury.

She would then follow her victim throughout the custom and make sure all the passers-by can hear her story.

We believe this could be a case of an indrect extortion. The lady could be expecting her target to respond offer her compensation instead. Of course, there is also a possibility that this lady is just insane.

People who happen to experience such incident should keep clam and ignore the lady completely although her continuous accusation might cause awkwardness for a long period of time.

Fake Comments from SEO Companies

2012-10-09T17:53:00.000+08:00

Similar to many blog owners, we do experience frequent comment spams in our entries.

Some examples would be:

Hi there, awesome site. I thought the topics you posted on were very interesting. I tried to add your RSS to my feed reader and it a few. take a look at it, hopefully I can add you and follow...

(Hyperlink text)

I actually enjoyed reading through this posting.Many thanks...

(Hyperlink text)

Hi there, awesome site. I thought the topics you posted on were very interesting. I tried to add your RSS to my feed reader and it a few. take a look at it, hopefully I can add you and follow...

(Hyperlink text)

My cousin recommended this blog and she was totally right keep up the fantastic work!

(Hyperlink text)

Usually, these comment spams will not have any targeted type of blogs, except those blogs that are being ranked higher in Google that their bots are able to locate. Hence, most of the comments are inclusive of compliments that can be applied to any blog generally, and followed by hyper-linked keywords that the spammers want to target.

We have blogged about this some time back. This blog entry is, however, to highlight spams from SEO companies. SEO means Search Engine Optimization, which we label it, jokingly as, flirting with Google to get your website shown at the top of searches.

Business owners who own any website may consider engaging services from these rich SEO service providers, however, do weigh your reputation.

If part of the SEO company's tactic is to spam all blogs with such comment that includes your company website at the bottom, it will portray your business very negatively.

Think again if you are deciding to engage services from such spammers. Weigh the consequences.

On our side, Scams Singapore have to keep our comments moderation on so as to filter off such scam. We do not wish our visitors to click onto the URL on the fake comments accidentally. If you own a blog, do be responsible for your visitors as well.

Twitter Direct Message Scam

2012-10-02T07:19:00.000+08:00

If you are an active Twitter user, you would have probably received direct message (DM) from a few of the people you are following.

hey this person is writing cruel things that are about you http://URL
hey this person is making up dreadful things that are about you http://URL
hey this user is writing offensive posts that are about you http://URL

These are similar to the previous Twitter DM scam. Please do not click on the URL at the back of the message.

Do warn your friend about it if you have received similar message from him/her.

In fact, we are quite surprised that such hoax is able to sustain for so long with more preys falling for the trick, causing an "explosive" effect.

Another Online Shopping Scam

2012-09-27T16:21:00.000+08:00

We have seen a scam alert posted by Facebook user Joan Ter who is a victim of an online shopping scam.

Please beware of the scammer. As extracted from the Facebook post:

Hi All,

DO NOT buy anything from the seller holding bank account no. 073-27352-8.

PLEASE SHARE THIS MESSAGE ON YOUR FB PAGE TO PREVENT OTHERS TO FALL INTO HIS/HER TRAP !!! THANK YOU
...
This happen on myself on 02 Sept 12, I've ordered a luggage from Hong Gadget. Till now I still haven't received the item and I'm blocked from his/her FB right after payment was done. After few of my friends trying to help me to PM him/her, my friends was blocked as well and he/her change her FB name to Sumiko Gadget.

We spread the picture around and today we found out that he/her created another FB account to con buyers. I add Loewe Sim as friend after I suspect he/she is Hong/Sumiki Gadget coz all the pictures of the items are 100% similar from Hong/Sumiko Gadget. Immediately he blocked me. So I ask my friend (which is already in his new FB account) to purchase an item and ask for bank account number for payment.

And confirm that he is the same person who con me. I have already made a police report, I hope those who have conned by him/her will also make a police report and have this person nab!

Fake Policeman Scam

2012-09-27T10:49:00.000+08:00

We have received a blog comment a couple of months ago regarding a phone scam. Sorry for not posting this up earlier because it has gone into the spam list automatically.

Fraudster Threatening Sex crime: I received a mail to call a number 9350 2840. The call got cut and received obscene message soliciting pros. I replied asking for identity and later a stupid scamster called from 85870482 stating that he is a cop and I need to meet him at jurong west police station. He said some guy having no 85958031 and complained about me because i messaged her daugher (mob9350 2840). I knew I did not msg anything wrong still he called me.
I subsequently searched this number in the internet and i found a link that this guy/guys has/have been threatening many people link:http://whocallsme.com/Phone-Number.aspx/82692175
These miscreants should be punished. Please suggest a way to post this link to police anonymously to help fellow singaporeans to face these kind of cheap crooks

Do note that the mobile numbers of the tricksters may change. We hope you will just remember that there is this kind of trick and not fall for it in future.

Gold Jewellery Scam

2012-09-24T00:55:00.000+08:00

We have received an email from one of our visitors regarding gold jewellery scams in Singapore. She is currently residing in Europe having spent several years living in Singapore.

Below is the original email, unedited:

I am submitting this report in the hope that I can help others to avoid a particularly well-executed gold jewellery scam which I fell victim to.

Whilst living for several years in Singapore I decided that I would have individual items of white and yellow gold melted down and made into just two pieces. All of my items had sentimental value to me, having been given to me as Birthday / Christmas / Anniversary gifts, but I felt I did not wear them enough and that if they were re-made into just two bangles then I probably would wear them on a daily basis.

Before taking them to a jeweller, I photographed all of the items and weighed them (one of the photographs actually shows some of the items on the scales, being weighed). I then separated the white gold and yellow gold into two envelopes and took them to De Silva Jewellers, 01-18 Tanglin Shopping Centre. I had used De Silva on earlier occasions for small repairs and as he seemed to be a well established and reputable jeweller I took my items to him and asked if he could melt them down and remake them into two bangles of my own designs. I explained that they were all of sentimental value and that I did not want to sell them but felt happy with the idea of having them re-modelled.

He made notes and sketches of the designs I wanted and weighed my gold and issued receipts recording the individual items and their corresponding weight and we agreed a price for carrying out the work (total S$2000).

Over the following weeks I visited De Silva several times to discuss my exact requirements and to ensure that he understood exactly what I wanted him to do, and eventually he informed me that the bangles were ready for collection and I was happy with the design and fit of both and especially happy that they had been made from my original pieces which were of sentimental value to me.

Several months later I popped into De Silva with my husband as he wanted to buy himself a gold chain and whilst there I glanced in a glass display case and to my surprise and shock saw three of my original white gold pieces being offered for sale. How could this be? I had in my possession a white gold bangle made from these very pieces by De Silva. When I challenged De Silva he became very agitated and said that it was normal practice to keep some pieces for re-sale and this was how he made his profits (I would have thought S$2000 would have covered his profits very nicely).

At this point I felt very distressed and left his premises. I then sent De Silva an email communication informing him that I wanted the return of my original pieces and to remove them from his display cabinet immediately and that if I did not hear from him by return I would make a report to the Police. I then returned to his premises and asked for the items. At first he said he no longer had them, then that he had sold them, and finally that if I returned 30 minutes later he would give them back to me.

I did not trust him to keep to his word, so went straight to the Police Office and filed a report. The result of this was that the police confiscated the pieces De Silva had kept and said they would investigate.

Because of what had happened, I looked out my photographs and notes including weights, which I had made prior to taking my items to be melted down, compared them to the receipts De Silva had given me and realised that he had recorded much less than the actual weights I had given him. I thought I had taken all reasonable precautions before handing over my jewellery to him, but I had let him weigh the items on scales which were out of my sight and trusted that the receipts he gave me were a true record and did not at that point compare them with my own notes.

A final twist to this story is that before I realised that I had been defrauded by De Silva I had recommended him to several friends, one of whom decided that she would do the same as I had and took her small gold items to him to be melted down and made into something different. As soon as I realised that I had been defrauded I contacted her and she went immediately to De Silva and took her pieces back (luckily he had not begun the process of melting them down). When she returned home she weighed her gold and then looked at the receipt that De Silva had given to her and saw that he had recorded weights much lower than the actual pieces weighed. At this point we realised that not only was De Silva being dishonest about using customers’ own pieces, which would achieve much more in re-sale terms, but that he was also defrauding them by giving false weights thereby ‘skimming’ gold for his own use.

The friend in question also made a statement to the Police as it was clear that De Silva had also intended to defraud her. The Police informed me that her statement would be used as additional evidence in my case, but that they could not take any action on her behalf as the jeweller had not actually carried out the work.

Time passed and eventually I was informed that no action would be taken against De Silva. Despite all the evidence which I had submitted including photographs, notes, receipts etc., and the additional statement from my friend I was told that the case would be closed. Of course, I am very disappointed by this decision, but I am more baffled than anything. I have asked how the Singapore Judiciary reached their decision but have been told this is ‘confidential information’. I also repeatedly asked what had happened to the confiscated items and only after months of repeatedly asking was I informed that the items were being processed for return to De Silva.

I have now returned to live in Europe and feel very sad that I have such a bad feeling about Singapore. I feel very let down, not only by De Silva but also by the judiciary and I am currently planning to take out civil legal proceedings as I really do not think that this sort of fraud should be allowed to continue unchallenged. I have lost hope of ever getting my lovely pieces returned to me, but I hope at least that my story will make others think very carefully before entering into any similar arrangements with De Silva.

We feel quite disheartened to receive such complaint. Although Scams Singapore is not able to investigate and testify for the scam incident, we do believe such form of gold scams do exist in Singapore - low crime doesn't mean no crime.

People who are being conned by such jewellery shop, please lodge police report in order to prevent such scammers from cheating more people!

Nevertheless, we wish to warn everyone that if you are going to hand over your gold to any jewellery shop, be sure to weigh the gold, take photos and make sure the person who takes over your gold indicates the correct weight on the receipt.

Online Scams Targeting Blogshop Owners

2012-08-28T09:01:00.000+08:00

This is similar to another Customer Scam on E-Commerce Website.

Blog Shop owners should take note of this.

Here is a Credit card scam that they are doing. They order from 1800.00 to 5000.00 dollars worth of product off your website by credit card. The billing and shipping address match. As soon as the order it, They want you to ship it immediately, and wear you out daily about getting the product shipped asap. It is obvious now that it was a stolen credit card because 30 days later, you will get a no authorization to purchase against your shopping cart. I was using pay-pal pro processor for my shopping cart which handles credit cards but does not give you any seller protection which I found out later.They only do seller protect on Pay-pal only and not all the time. Once the no authorization hits, pay-pal takes that amount out of your account immediately. They then fight for you to resolve the issue with the credit card company. With out letting the whole world know the outcome, the bottom line is the scammer has the product. You paid for the product and then your account gets hits for the entire amount when the no authorized purchase contacts pay-pal which puts you negative for what ever the amount was. If you send some product out, they tell their buddies and what happen to me is that 5 of them ordered product all before the first no authorization hit which means there was money and product going everywhere and in the end you have no protection on the orders, the product that did get sent you will no longer see and you will be responsible for the money on it. This has been a horrible and very expensive scam that was done to me and all I did was have products to sell on the internet from my website. My site has some very expensive items , so it did not take many items to really rack up the money which has all fallen on me. Now, I can no longer take a order from a legitimate customer because my pay-pal is in the negative. If a order comes in, it just makes my account less negative. Then you would have to try and chase that money down. It has been a nightmare to say the least. A lot of the times they ask if you take credit cards as the first email. Be very careful as these Singapore scammers are probably from Indonesia or Malaysia using freight forward addresses at the airport in Singapore. All the address's were on Airport Rd, Bldg. what ever. BEWARE..

House Rental Scam - Property Agent Scam

2012-08-24T10:37:00.000+08:00

Dear Friends,

I just want to make aware all the people who are searching for Rented houses.

There are people in group who will put an Ad. on gumtree or other website for Rented house 2+1 or 3+1. they will ask the Rent lesser then the market price like (1400 - 1700 for 2+1) and (1700 to 1900) for 3+1.
Once people see this less price Ad and call the number which they mention in the Ad. One Lady mostly will pick the phone (some time could be guy also). Lady is of age around 30 -35 blend cut may be chinese. (Name - Melza)

She will arrange the meeting with u and show u the house and will say will paint the house and do all cleaning and other work etc.
She will say they are the Management company(TDAP) and NOT the agent. So we will take care of the house for whole tenure for any demage etc.

Once you are impressed with her talks and less rental. She will ask 2 months deposite, 1 month rent and 1 month management fees. And will ask to deposite money in her comapny account.

She will give u aggreement papar and deposit slip evrything very nicely and will agree for your move in date.
But as your move in date will come near she will say house is not available. And says I will show u another house or move u in another house for time being.

she will keep u showing many houses but will never give u those houses. And you will be stuck because youe move in date is near and u can not find new house also. If u ask ur money she will not agree for refund and if she agrees to refund she will give you a Cheque which will get bounced latar on when u deposite in your bank account. As they will issue you closed account cheque.

Many people they have targeted mostly Indain families who can not run behind them to get money back, they r taking advantage. Also they do not pay the owners and agents from whom they take houses.

Many people are their victim (I am also one of their victim). So I do not want any other people to suffer like me and others who are suffering mental and physical tortour. I compalined to police also but do not know when action will be taken care.

So plssssssssss my friends do not get traped to get Rented house on seeing cheaper Rent. And from any company says they r management company. they are 3-4 people made a gang and doing scam and fraud to innocent people. They do have company office also. do not get impressed seeing their office.

Note : they will give you all the documents very neatly (like agreement, deposit slip and money transfred slip etc.) but, at last these documents will not be helpful. Once money gone its gone.

So, pls get house only through register agents under (CEA) and ask there ID cards. and do meet owner before taking any house.

pls take all the precautions before giving your hard earned money.

Thanks for your attention. And voice out for any fraud or cheating you come accross to safe others.

A reader has posted the above rental scam on our website.

We would advise everyone to check with CEA when in doubt of the property agent.

Phone Scams Regarding Computer Being Hacked

2012-08-20T12:48:00.000+08:00

The Singapore Police Force has warned the public not to fall prey to phone scams involving internet security. 32 cases have been reported since the beginning of this year.

On June 14, a woman had received a phone call from someone who claimed to be an employee of a well-known software company. The scammer told her that some Malaysians were trying to hack into her computer, followed by selling her a security licence in order to protect her computer.

After she handed over her credit card details, she realised S$1,300 was stolen from her account.

"I asked them to let me talk to my husband, but they said no, I had to make a decision that time, or else my computer would be blacklisted... I gave my credit card number and one-time password. Suddenly the screen went blank and some amount was charged to my account, and it was in euros," she said.

The public is advised not to divulge their credit card details to unknown person. Software company will not have your contact details. Therefore, in emergency situation, you will receive call from your Internet Service Provider (ISP), which can be Starhub, SingNet or M1. However, none of the companies would provide such security service.