Singapore police warn of hotel and attraction ticket scams
SINGAPORE — The Singapore police have advised the public to be wary of online scams that involve hotel room reservations and attraction tickets, especially during the end-of-year school holiday period.
In a media statement on Friday (22 November), the police said that they have received more than 197 reports of e-commerce scams that involve such items between January to September this year.
In terms of attraction tickets, many involve tickets to the Universal Studios Singapore at Resorts World Sentosa. The police said that victims either did not receive the tickets, or had received invalid tickets after payments were made.
The public are advised to adopt the following preventive measures:
Don’t be impulsive: Be wary of online advertisements for hotel room reservations and attraction tickets at cheap prices that sound too good to be true. Do not buy on impulse; read the reviews of the seller before committing to a purchase.
Don’t believe: Do not fall for scammers using local bank accounts or providing copies of a NRIC/driver’s licence to make the public believe that they are genuine sellers.
Don’t give: Avoid making payments or deposits in advance to strangers online. Try to use shopping platforms or arrangements that release your payment to the seller only upon receiving the item. Alternatively, arrange to meet the seller and pay only after collecting the item. Bearing in mind that tickets may be invalid upon entry as they are duplicated tickets, the public are advised to purchase only from authorised sellers.
If members of the public wish to provide any information related to such scams, please call the police hotline at 1800-255-0000, or submit it online. Should they require urgent police assistance, please dial 999.
To seek scam-related advice, call the anti-scam helpline at 1800-722-6688 or go online. Join the ‘let’s fight scams’ campaign by signing up as an advocate to receive up-to-date messages and share them with family and friends.
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