SINGAPORE – More young people are getting caught up in e-commerce scams despite the serious penalties, including a jail sentence of up to 10 years.
The majority of these ruses, which led to victims losing $8.3 million in the first six months of 2022, involved people posting products for sale and not delivering the items.
Police figures for e-commerce scams showed that almost 60 per cent of those arrested for their role in the crime between January and October were aged 29 and below.
A total of 121 individuals were arrested during that period, including 15 young people aged 19 and below, and 56 people aged between 20 and 29.
Lawyer Jeremy Pereira, a senior associate at Withers KhattarWong, said it is cheating if “sellers” post items online but do not have the intention to deliver the goods. The offence of cheating carries a jail term of up to 10 years and a fine.
“We even had a recent case where the ‘seller’ thought that she would be able to stay under the radar by ‘selling’ extremely small-value items, hoping that the victims might not bother making a police report over a few dollars.
“Many police reports were still filed against the scammer,” he said, without providing more details.
The number of e-commerce scam cases – the third most common scam of concern in Singapore after those involving jobs and phishing – has doubled from 2021 to 2022.
A total of 2,267 e-commerce scams were reported in the first six months of 2022 compared with 1,057…
