The proliferation of the internet has been one of the
great technological advancements of the 21stcentury. It has improved the flow
of information across the globe, transformed the way communication
is done between people, and change businesses in ways that we have
never imagined.
Yet, there are always people around the world that find ways of
abusing something that was originally meant to be good. In recent
years, internet scams have started to become more common across the
world. People in Singapore have not been spared.
There are many reasons why the internet makes sense for scammers.
Similar to other legitimate businesses that are based online, the
internet allows scams to be operated cheaply (you just need a
website and a Facebook page), quickly, and anonymously. The best
part is that scammers can even scam people anywhere across the
world, while enjoying their mojito at some beach in the middle of
nowhere.
People are scammed all the time across different online channels.
The good thing about most scams (not all though) is that scammers
are generally not that creative, and would typically prefer to
spend their efforts using tried and tested methods. An example
would be all the gold buyback scams that have been operating in
Singapore for so many years.
The bad thing about these online scams is that most of them are
already tried and tested elsewhere. And they are brought in to
Singapore because they work well elsewhere.
Here are some common online scams to take note of.
The idea of having a job that provides you with flexible working
hours while working from home is an extremely appealing one. Not
surprisingly, scammers have started to pounce on this common desire
that so many people have.
Basically, what they do is advertise on online job portals about
possible job openings. This is a neat idea, since they are getting
people to apply for these “jobs” rather than to get a salesman to
do the scamming. There is little or no cost involved.
What happens thereafter is basically a ponzi scheme. You pay to get
included as part of this schemescam and you get paid
when you invite more people to the scheme scam. So yes,
the job is flexible and you can indeed work from anywhere. But
there is no job whatsoever, unless you consider scamming other
people as a job.
This article from Vulcan
Post reports it nicely. It is based on a Malaysia operation but
there is a great chance that it is merely a matter of time before
this appears in Singapore, if it hasn’t already been taking
place.
Carousell is a great platform for anyone looking to sell his or her
2nd hand items.
Scammers started realizing they could easily make a quick buck or
two simply by posing as buyers. What they do is pretend to have
made a bank transfer to buy your product (usually an expensive
product). Subsequently, they will claim there was an overcharge on
their account and that a refund would first have to be made from
you to them before the bank releases the balance to you.
If you make the transfer to them, you will never be seeing your
money again.
A lady in Singapore shared her experience on this. You
can read
her Facebook Post here.
This is a scam that steals your social media network, rather than
your money. Many people fall for it all the time because they do
not think it costs them anything.
Basically what happens here is that some fraudster would start a
Facebook page posing as a big brand and run an online contest with
a giveaway that is too good to be true. We have seen giveaways that
include Playstation 4, free air tickets on Emirates and most
recently, the giving away of Range Rover cars in Singapore.
These scams work very well with the respective pages gaining
thousands of “like” in a matter of a few days. And in case you are
wondering, no, these scammers didn’t respect Singaporeans and our
social media discernment enough to create a new scam by
themselves, they
simply copied what already worked overseas. Seems like we
are a pretty naïve bunch of people on social media.
The thing about these Facebook contests is that even though it cost
you technically nothing from a financial point of view to take
part, “liking” the contest and “sharing” it on your Facebook page
opens up the rest of the people in your social network to the same
scam. You are in other words, a brand ambassador of this Facebook
scam.
So spend a little effort to think about what you are actually
“liking” and “sharing” on Facebook.
What are some other online scams that you
encountered? Join this open
Facebook Page to share with the rest of Singapore scams
that you know of.
The post How
Scams In Singapore Are Starting To Leverage On The
Internet appeared first onDollarsAndSense.sg.