People selling products online in Singapore should remain alert from the online scammers who send emails in the names of Paypal or other reputable banks, said Singapore police today.
There have been more than 40 cases of Phony Paypal scams whereby online sellers have fallen prey to these scammers posing as interested buyers since the start of the year, the police added.
Revealing about the modus operandi of these scammers, Singapore police said, “The culprits would pose as interested buyers and contact the victims. They would send fictitious emails in the name of PayPal or reputable banks to deceive the victims into believing that they had made payments. The culprits would request for the items to be shipped overseas and the victims were told to show proof of shipment before they would receive payment.”
It also added, “In some of the cases, the victims were duped into making fictitious administrative payments such as for the ‘activation of PayPal accounts’ in order for them to receive payment. No payments were eventually received by the victims.”
The police have urged the members of the public to adopt following preventive measures:
1) Always log on to your Paypal account to verify that payment has indeed been made before sending the item. Do not trust the email, even if the address from which it originated appears to be legitimate.
2) Never download attachments or software programs attached in such emails. Clicking on these could harm your computer and leave it susceptible to being hacked.
3) Do not give out your personal information, credit/debit card details, bank account details, or email account details.
4) Bear in mind that if Paypal really needs your information, it would send you a request to login safely to your account before you provide that information.
To seek scam-related advice, members of the public have been advised to call anti-scam helpline at 1800-722-6688 or log on to www.scamalert.sg.
