Hidden risks of fast cash for phone line advertisements

“Want to earn some quick cash? Just subscribe to telco mobile phone lines, 100 per cent safe and legal.”

This is the typical pitch of a number of “fast cash” listings on Carousell that ask users to subscribe to mobile phone lines from telcos and exchange the bundled mobile phones for cash.

Over a week recently, Yahoo News Singapore observed at least 10 such listings on the online marketplace and approached the owners of these listings to enquire more about the offers.

The listings come even as more people are falling victim to such phone subscription scams where they would have phone bills charged to their names despite selling away their phones, prompting the authorities to warn users against participating in such schemes.

Typically, those offering the “fast cash” schemes claim that they are legal but add a disclaimer that subscribers must be willing to be blacklisted by the telcos if they decide to cancel their phone lines before the end of the contracts. In one case, an owner of a listing claimed to have an “insider” who could erase the subscriber’s name from the blacklist.

When this reporter spoke to several owners of the listings, she was offered between $200 and $1,000 cash for each phone received, depending on the phone model.

Some of these owners also gave the assurance that monthly bills would be paid for, or that subscribers need not worry about unwanted bills as they can retain their SIM cards.

However, less discerning subscribers would still find themselves saddled with unwanted phone bills – even if users keep their SIM cards – as they still have to pay a sign-up cost and monthly subscription fee under the terms of a mobile line contract. Terminating the line prematurely might put subscribers at risk of being blacklisted from telcos as well.

Last month, a woman was charged in court for cheating a victim into believing that he need not pay for the termination fee of the mobile device contract which he signed up for. Nina Syazwina Jamari, 20, had asked her victim to sign up for a StarHub mobile line contract in order to get her hands on the bundled iPhone 8 Plus.

Separately, an owner of a secondhand mobile phone business last year conned some 50 victims after convincing them to sign up for mobile phone subscriptions. Ang See Seng, 33, lied that other persons would pay for the sign-up costs and monthly bills.

Ang asked his victims to hand over the mobile devices that came with the plans but later failed to settle the victims’ monthly bills. He incurred further costs for the victims by buying game credits without their knowledge. In total, his cheating spree involved 101 electronic devices worth more than $100,000.

According to the Singapore Police Force (SPF), the masterminds behind “fast cash” schemes usually entice those seeking to earn a quick buck by advertising on social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram.

When Yahoo News Singapore spoke to several of the posters behind the advertisements, all of them offered to pay the upfront costs of buying a phone and assured this reporter that she could keep the SIM card. Some of them also offered to pay for the termination cost of the phone line. All said that they would give cash for the phone on the spot.

One man said that he would teach the user how to “handle the bills”. The man, who identified himself as Simon, offered up to $1,000 for an iPhone but added that the monthly bill would be paid by the subscriber himself.

“The monthly bill is you pay… for our deal, I will teach you what to do, I will tell you the things you need to do, and (give you) the agreement price between you and me cause I am buying the phone, not anything else,” he said through a phone call.

Asked if the subscriber would get into trouble, Simon assured that the “worst” the telco could do was blacklist the subscriber until the phone bill is cleared.

Warnings from Carousell, telcos and police

When asked about the listings, a spokesman from Carousell said phone subscription-for-money listings are prohibited from the platform as they advertise a “fraudulent scheme”.

Carousell is “actively monitoring and taking down such listings” and those who put up such listings will also be banned from the platform, the spokesman added.

“We have dedicated teams at Carousell monitoring suspicious listings. When such listing or activity is identified, we will investigate and take the necessary actions.”

While most of the listings offering cash for phone sign-ups have been removed from Carousell and their users banned since Yahoo News Singapore began its investigation, several fresh listings could still be seen.

When approached by Yahoo News Singapore about the schemes, the local telcos advised customers against participating in them.

A spokesman from Singtel said, “We’ve always advised customers to steer clear of any scams including online scams and not to engage in fraudulent actions that offer quick and easy cash.

“Customers should be aware that they bear responsibility for fulfilling any contract they enter into with service providers.” The telco urged customers not to provide personal details to people touting the schemes.

Similarly, StarHub said customers should be “wary” of “quick cash” schemes.

“We do not condone such ‘quick cash’ schemes and advise customers to exercise extreme caution when approached to sign up for telco services for third parties,” it said.

The telco added that it has security checks in place at “customer touchpoints to identify suspicious service applications and to mitigate our exposure to fraudulent activities”.

M1 declined to comment on the listings.

When asked about the listings, the Singapore Police Force (SPF) advised members of the public to be wary of online offers that “promise high returns for very little effort”.

Subscribers should be mindful that that they will be accountable for any phone lines registered under their names, the police added.