SINGAPORE: At least 997 individuals here have lost a total of S$3. 9mil (RM12. 55mil) since January after they dropped victim to con artists posing as property or home agents, the police stated on Friday (Aug 26).
There is a resurgence associated with scammers impersonating legitimate property agents and asking victims for transaction to secure the leasing of an unit before viewing the property, according to the police advisory.
The police said victims would typically respond to an online property listing plus initiate a conversation with the scammer through WhatsApp using the get in touch with numbers in the false listing.
During the conversation, the scammer posing as a signed up property agent would certainly convince the sufferer of his qualifications by sending a photograph of the agent’s company card and pictures or even videos of the property to be leased.
The scammer might then ask for the victim’s personal details to prepare the lease agreement.
When victims asked if they could view the property, the scammers would certainly claim that the homeowner was unavailable. To include an air associated with legitimacy, scammers would certainly send a duplicate of a lease contract with the name and NRIC of the purported owner of the device to the victims so they can sign.
Right after signing, victims will be instructed to make payment for various factors such as rental deposits, stamp duty, or even other fees to secure the rental.
They would discover that they had been scammed only after the scammers stopped contact with them, or even when they reached out towards the legitimate property providers through other means.
The police recommended members of the public to adopt precautionary measures such as verifying the legitimacy of a property listing.
They can do so by liaising with a residence agent using only the particular agent’s phone number signed up on the Council designed for Estate Agencies (CEA)’s public register. The public may check whether or not a property agent is certainly registered with the CEA by searching for the particular agent’s phone number at the register.
When the search does not lead to the property agent’s profile, it means the property real estate agent has not registered that phone number with the CEA and the listing might be fake.
The public can also contact the particular agent’s property company to verify the particular authenticity of the list.
Members of the public may also be urged to watch out for calls with the “+” prefix that result from overseas, not to create any payments before a property viewing, instead of to disclose personal information, credit card and bank details or passwords, which includes one-time passwords, to anyone. – The particular Straits Times (Singapore)/Asia News Network