The Police have observed a resurgence in an E-commerce Rental scam variant that involves impersonating property agents registered with the Council for Estate Agencies (CEA). Between January and October 2024, more than 430 reports have been lodged, with total losses amounting to at least $2.7million.
In this variant, victims would typically respond to property rental listings on various online platforms or websites (e.g., Facebook, Carousell, rental advertisement sites, etc.), with the largest number of victims having responded to listings on Facebook. The victims would generally interact with the scammers through WhatsApp using the contact numbers the scammers published in the property rental listing. During their exchange, the scammers would impersonate a property agent from a legitimate real estate agency and provide proof of their credentials by sending pictures of property agent passes, business cards and pictures/videos or virtual tours of the rental property. However, the contact numbers provided would differ from those of the legitimate property agent registered with CEA.
In some cases, scammers will engage subjects to meet the victims and impersonate as the property agent’s “colleagues” or “personal assistants”. These subjects would attend the property viewings with the victims on the pretext that the fake property agent was unavailable or held up at another appointment. After the viewing, victims would be told to provide their personal particulars for the tenancy agreement and to make payments for the rentals through bank transfers or PayNow. Victims would discover that they had been scammed when scammers ceased contact with them or when they reached out to the legitimate property agents.
The Police would like to share with members of public some safeguards when renting properties:
- Always ask for and verify the identity and registered contact numbers of the property agents renting out the properties against the CEA Public Register before dealing with them. To do so, members of the public can key in the advertised phone number on the CEA Public Register @ https://www.cea.gov.sg/aceas/public-register to perform a search. If the purported agent refuses to provide you with his property agent license issued by the CEA or the phone number search does not lead to a CEA-registered property agent’s profile page, it means that there is a high likelihood that you are dealing with an unlicensed agent at best or a scammer at worst. If the phone number is not registered with CEA, this is likely to be a scam, even if the property agent’s name and registration number can be found in the CEA Public Register.
- Potential tenants should view the properties in person and check that they are dealing with the actual CEA-registered property agent in order to safeguard themselves.
- Property agents are not permitted to demand and collect payments to view or rent properties. Payment of rental deposits or rent should be made directly to the landlord using verifiable payment modes such as crossed cheques and bank transfers and must be paid to the landlord’s bank accounts, not the “personal assistants” bank account or unverified PayNow numbers.
The Police would like to advise members of the public to adopt the following precautionary measures:
- ADD – Add ScamShield App to protect yourself from scam calls and SMSes. Set security features (e.g., enable two-factor (2FA) or multi-factor/two-step authentication/verification for banks, social media, messaging and Singpass accounts; set transaction limits on internet banking transactions, including PayNow).
- CHECK – for scam signs with official sources such as the ScamShield helpline (1799). You can also check the legitimacy of suspicious messages, phone numbers and website links via the ScamShield app or visit the ScamShield website at www.scamshield.gov.sg. Verify the legitimacy of a property listing via the following means:
- TELL – Tell the authorities, family and friends about scams. Report the fraudulent pages to the online platforms (e.g. Facebook, Carousell) on which you found the listing.
If you have any information relating to such crimes or if you are in doubt, please call the Police Hotline at 1800-255-0000, or submit it online at www.police.gov.sg/iwitness. All information will be kept strictly confidential. If you require urgent Police assistance, please dial ‘999’.
For more information on scams, members of the public can visit www.scamshield.gov.sg or call the ScamShield Helpline at 1799. Fighting scams is a community effort. Together, we can ACT Against Scams to safeguard our community!
Screenshot of a Rental Posting on Facebook ▼
Screenshots of how the scammer impersonated as property agent ▼
Fake business card and pass
Whatsapp profile to impersonate the legitimate property agent. Always remember to verify the contact information with CEA
Picture of physical viewing done by another ▼
Always do property viewing with the legitimate property agent
SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE
21 November 2024 @ 5:03 PM