SINGAPORE — The police on Friday (Dec 2) warned that it has seen an increase in a type of phishing scam scam involving fake buyers on the e-commerce platform Carousell, with reported losses from purported victims amounting to at least S$335,000.
Posing as interested buyers on the e-commerce platform, these scammers would reach out to sellers and request that these sellers key in their banking details on spoofed websites to facilitate the payment of the product or for delivery charges.
These victims would only realise they have been scammed once they discover that unauthorised transactions have been made from their bank accounts.
Since November this year, at least 352 victims have fallen prey to such scams, with reported losses amounting to at least S$335,000, the police said.
In this scam variant, the police warned that the scammers would reach out to the victims on Carousell and express interest in the items which they had listed on the platform.
After agreeing to the sale of the items, the scammers would then request for the victims’ contact details to receive a link to facilitate payment or delivery of the item.
Depending on the contact details shared with the scammers, the victims would then receive an email, SMS or WhatsApp message from the scammer with dubious URL links or QR codes.
Upon clicking on the links or scanning the QR codes, the victims would be redirected to a spoofed website to enter their internet banking login credentials, bank card details…
