4 More People Arrested for Face Mask Scam in Carousell; Total of 12 Arrested So Far

2020-03-07 , 7:33 pm

Like what my friend, ScamAlertSG, always likes to say, the greater the need, the more chances you’ll see a scam happening.

And given the Covid-19 outbreak around the world, the need for face masks is indeed great.

Masks Scams in Singapore

Singaporeans are getting scammed out of their hard-earned money for fake masks.

Some are scammed offline; They see dubious sellers selling masks at places like Lucky Plaza and immediately bought a box (or more) for themselves since it is pretty hard to find masks here.

Only to realise that the supposed 3-ply masks are thinner, or 1-ply masks instead.

They’re the lucky ones (pun intended).

Because at least, they managed to get their hands on some sort of masks.

Those who are scammed online, however, might not receive anything even after paying for it.

Online Masks Scams in S’pore

The police have been hard at work trying to catch masks scammers in Singapore.

The Singapore Police Force revealed that they’ve been receiving “a lot of” reports on Carosell masks scams between “January and February 2020”.

These sellers will somehow convince their victims to pay in advance. Once done, they’ll ghost the poor buyers.

Four People Arrested For Online Masks Scam

Today (7 March 2020), the police revealed that they’ve made for more arrests for online masks scams.

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They’ve arrested two men and two women between 24 and 27 Feb 2020:

A 29-year-old man suspected of being involved in three e-commerce scams amounting to at least $55,000.
A 19-year-old woman suspected of being involved in 5 e-commerce scams amounting to more than $580.
A 21-year-old lady and a 23-year-old man involved in at least 11 e-commerce scams amounting to more than $5,000.

Police investigations are ongoing for these 4 cases.

This Brings The Number of Arrests Up To 12

With the 4 arrests, the number of people arrested for e-commerce scams “relating to masks” has increased to 12.

The remaining 8 people have been charged for cheating-related offences.

With the current Covid-19 situation in Singapore, the police are expecting more of such scams to occur.

Makes sense since ScamAlert is their friend too.

So here’s a good rule of thumb for all Singaporeans to follow:

If Something’s Too Good To Be True, It Usually Is

And by that, I don’t mean a PS4 for $10.

Right now, even someone coming to you and saying, I’ve got sixty boxes, how many do you want? is considered “too good”.

After all, the whole world is facing a shortage of masks right now.

So how do you differentiate between the real and the fake?

Just follow the second rule of thumb:

No Prepayments, Only Cash Upon Receipt

No matter how much someone begs, plead, or try to bargain for prepayment, ignore them.

Even if they send an image of an NRIC over as a guarantee because that happened just recently and the victim realised that the scammer used another person’s lost NRIC.

Insist on only sending any payment after you’ve received and checked your goods and you’re probably safe from masks scams.

Masks Aren’t Necessary

The reason why Singaporeans are going crazy over getting masks is to prevent Covid-19 infection.

But here’s the thing: masks aren’t the number one prevention tool to protect against the new coronavirus.

Washing your hands frequently with soap and being careful of where you touched is infinitely more important and useful to practise.

In other words, leave the masks to people who need it more and maintain your personal hygiene instead.

Like what a certain Singapore Minister told Singaporeans, our supplies, including 16 million masks, will not be enough unless Singaporeans keep calm and live life as usual.

So don’t hoard hor or you might just end up like the poor dudes who looted FairPrice and realised the supermarket isn’t going to refund them their “losses”.