The
Police warns of fraudsters who have been making online purchases using
false addresses in Singapore as part of the shipment consignee.
This came in response to a STOMPer's encounter with an online cheat, which made him suffer losses of close to $9000.
According to Steven, he was cheated in an online
transaction with a buyer in Singapore who made use of a stolen credit
card account. In his post on STOMP dated June 1, he said:
This is the full reply from the Police:
"On-line fraudsters who are not operating in Singapore have
targeted unsuspecting on-line merchants from the United States and some
other countries.
"Between 2002 and 2003, the modus operandi adopted by fraudsters who
placed on-line orders with unsuspecting merchants was to simply
add 'Singapore' as part of the shipment consignee’s address even though
the address was actually located outside Sngapore.
"In such cases, the fraudsters apparently made use of the good name of
Singapore to dupe on-line merchants into processing their orders.
"The fraudsters have since evolved in their modus operandi. Since 2004,
the fraudster’s modus operandi is to masquerade as Singapore-based
companies or individuals to place on-line orders with unsuspecting
merchants.
"The fraudsters made use of the contact details of bona fide freight
forwarding companies in Singapore as the consignee of the shipments.
"Once the shipments arrived in Singapore, the fraudsters immediately
directed the freight forwarders to transship the goods to the country,
where the fraudsters are actually based.
"CAD investigations have so far revealed that the fraudsters did not operate in Singapore.
"To tackle such cases, CAD has been working closely with US law
enforcement agencies and regional police forces, other government
agencies and industry players through fraud information sharing and
public education.
"CAD also helped victims of such scams to recover goods worth more than US$350,000.
"On-line merchants can also protect themselves by exercising greater
caution when processing orders from questionable customers.
"They should suspect customers who place exceptionally large or unusual
orders or who provide questionable contact details or multiple credit
card numbers for payment."