Looking for Victim of Blogshop Scam

Dear readers,

A producer from MediaCorp has approached us for help to search for a victim of blogshop scam for one of their programmes.

We believe the programme would help to enlighten/alert other Singaporeans and foreigners. Thus, if you were a victim of a blog shop scam, or you have a friend who has experienced it, do contact us with your name and contact number. We would forward your contact directly to Manoj, the producer.

Please do not type your contact details into this blog entry's comment.

Below is the email we have received.

Hello,

My name is Manoj and I am a producer at MediaCorp. I am currently working on the webisodes for an upcoming Channel 5 series.

Basically the webisodes aim to educate youth on internet based activities. One of the themes we are highlighting is blogshop scams.

As your website is established for being against online scams in Singapore, I was wondering if you could recommend someone whom we could feature in our webisode. The person should have been a victim of an online scam involving a blogshop.

I hope you would be keen on collaborating with us. If you are keen, please do contact me at [email removed to avoid sender from being spammed]

Looking forward to hearing a positive reply from you.

Manoj

Another Online Shopping Scam

We have seen a scam alert posted by Facebook user Joan Ter who is a victim of an online shopping scam.

Please beware of the scammer. As extracted from the Facebook post:

Hi All,

DO NOT buy anything from the seller holding bank account no. 073-27352-8.

PLEASE SHARE THIS MESSAGE ON YOUR FB PAGE TO PREVENT OTHERS TO FALL INTO HIS/HER TRAP !!! THANK YOU
...
This happen on myself on 02 Sept 12, I've ordered a luggage from Hong Gadget. Till now I still haven't received the item and I'm blocked from his/her FB right after payment was done. After few of my friends trying to help me to PM him/her, my friends was blocked as well and he/her change her FB name to Sumiko Gadget.

We spread the picture around and today we found out that he/her created another FB account to con buyers. I add Loewe Sim as friend after I suspect he/she is Hong/Sumiki Gadget coz all the pictures of the items are 100% similar from Hong/Sumiko Gadget. Immediately he blocked me. So I ask my friend (which is already in his new FB account) to purchase an item and ask for bank account number for payment.

And confirm that he is the same person who con me. I have already made a police report, I hope those who have conned by him/her will also make a police report and have this person nab!

Customer Scam on E-Commerce Website

We have received this scam story from a visitor "Bouncer". He is probably a foreigner who owns an e-commerce website. The "customer" would purchase items from him, paying him via PayPal. After receiving the goods, the "customer" would file report that the purchase is unauthorized and thus getting back the money while able to keep the purchased items.

Blog shop owners should take note of this online shopping scam.

Below is the victim:

I have an e-commerece website, when they first contacted me and ask if I take credit cards which is strange because I have all (4) credit cards in a Logo on my front page of my website. When you say yes, they will order from 1500.00 to 4500.00 worth of product all in multiples of what ever product they choose. They are usually pick the very expensive items. They immediately start asking you to ship asap, i wait for tracking number they say. They ask everyday or every other day if you shipped yet. They wait until they know the package is shipped and in customs and then they report to the credit card company it was an unauthorized purchase. What stinks is , the scammer gets the product and if you have a pay-pal shopping cart like I do, pay-pal on this end takes the full amount of the order out of your account until it is settled. You have to go to the details link on pay pal in your account to see if you are eligible for seller protection when someone places an order. If not they take the entire amount out of your pay-pal account which puts you in the negative if you don't keep a lot of money in there. If you have seller protection, they leave the money in I guess and work out the dispute with the credit card company. These orders all have addresses that are shipped to a building on Airport Rd in Singapore, building No. whatever. This is most likely where the freight forwarders are to ship somewhere else. I shipped one order and the dispute ended in my favor but shortly after I received 3 other big orders all going to some building on airport rd in Singapore. They are telling there buddies they found some sucker in the states that will send out the product. I have since stopped all sales to Singapore and if I do get an order, I immediately refund the money right back. I hope this helps save someone from this scam of people ordering product off your website and then claiming unauthorized purchase after you have sent the product. You lose the product and your account gets all screwed up for up to 30 days until they get it worked out.

We would like to highlight that such scammer exists in every country. Even though large number of residents in Singapore are foreigners, the government is still able to reduce crime rate, such that Singapore is safer and more crime-free than most other countries.

Any victim from other country should try to contact the Singapore police force for assistance in any online scam. It would do you good while helping Singaporeans to remove black sheep.

Blog Shop Scam - Shop-4more.blogspot.com

We have just received a complaint about a blogshop from Jolene.

Bought a ring online for $3.50 and after i transferred the money to the seller, she said she will mail it out.
About a week later, there was no news and so i texted her.
She then replied saying, 'my suppplier run away already, how much you paid me?' followed by, 'I can't refund you your money'.
I got angry, naturally, and told her i will report her to the police if she doesn't refund me.
She then replied saying, 'I only do meet up for refund . And u have to sign a letter to prove u won't make a police report against us , we will need ur IC photcopied as to prove.'
Her replies were sent only yesterday, 16th march at 8:24pm.
Not only hasn't she refunded me, she has also locked her blog and avoided my calls.
This is an obvious case of fraud.

Her blogshop: shop-4more.blogspot.com
Her mobile Number: 93610***

We note that:
1. The seller has collected the money and the seller has the responsibility to resolve it in a way that satisfies the buyer (in a reasonable way).
2. If anything has happened to the supplier, the seller has the obligation to contact the buyer and not let the buyer "chase after" her.
3. The seller does not even seem to know how much her buyer has paid her, which is ridiculous.
4. The seller has no right to make the buyer meet up for refund, unless, the seller is willing to pay for the transportation fee and time lost.
5. The seller has no right to demand for IC photocopied from the buyer.
6. The seller has no right to make the buyer sign a letter to prove that no police report will be made.
7. The seller is using threats.
8. The seller has locked up her blog instead of broadcasting an entry to clarify the problem to account to all buyers and visitors.
9. The seller has tried to avoid the buyer who has handed over the money.

We acknowledge that the blog shop owner behaves like a scammer in the way she deals with this issue.

We would encourage all victims to report to the police about this blog shop scam. As long as the scammer holds or once held a Singapore number, we are quite confident that our Singapore police force is able to locate her.