Beware of Online Selling Scam from Foreign Countries

Recently, there is a growing number of advertisements from suspicious users posted in our local forums for sales of photography gears. The prices that they have offered are quite amazing and the items are new (the forums' sections are actually meant to be for sales of refurnished items). Their member accounts are also new.

When we tried to clarify with one of them, the person told us we had to make payment online while the actual item is located in foreign country.

As a matter of fact, parallel import goods may be cheaper than local ones, partly because of non-local warranty or lower tax; however, if the item cost less than 50% of local price, you should really beware of the catch.

As our local police force may not be able to deal with criminals in every foreign country, we advise everyone not to try luck in all the cheap offers. If it happens that you send the payment via online transfer and the seller does not mail the item over as promised, it may be beyond anyone's help.

Will you purchase electronic items via online from Kazakhstan or Pakistan?

If you have purchased items from such sellers and realised you have been conned, do post your encounter in the comment section below. Meanwhile do spread about this and encourage your friends many things are too good to be real.

Fake Distributor Online Scam

The emerging of internet has helped many businessmen to reach target audience easier. Selling products online means there is no need for a physical store, which will help to ease the business cost since rental is usually the biggest component.

However, there is an issue of reliability at stake. Many scammers have emerged to harvest in the large market with fake or imitation products, which are usually of lousier quality than the actual manufacturers'.

It is often difficult to trace the sellers when the online buyers face issues with the products.

In our opinion, it is worth the risk to try out non-consumable and non facial products; on the other hand, we should always exercise extra care in identifying the sellers' credibility. For products that you will put into your mouth or apply on your skin, you probably have to research more.

There is a compaint from a beauty products distributor that someone has been using her name to sell the products, which are supposed to be sold only through her.

"注意：很多卖家利用我们的名誉说是我们的代理和我们拿货，但是她们根本不是我们的代理却说是跟我们拿货。我们并不是他们的代理商。大家请小心！"

We do not know if these products really work. Our primary concern is that if you were to get them from unauthorized distributors, there is a high chance that they are counterfeit goods, which may harm your health. Secondly, if anything happens, you may not be able to pursue the matter if you get the products from an unknown online fake distributor.

It is therefore better for you to get any product from the appropriate distributor instead of getting them at discounted price from unknown distributors or people who claim to be representing the distributor.

A decent product that is allowed to be sold online should at least have a decent company website. Do check with them for more information when you are in doubt.

Second Round of DBS / POSB ATM Card Skimming Fraud

DBS / POSB bank's ATM was hit by a second round of fraud last Sunday night, resulting S$23,000 stolen from 17 accounts. All affected customers were fully compensated within 24 hours. Unlike the previous time, the fraudster had withdrawn the money in Singapore instead of Malaysia.

The bank was quick enough to identify other potential victims among their customers and deactivated their ATM cards. Some customers were angered by the procedure of the bank, which was done without prior notice. It was, of course, done in order to reduce the lost of money.

DBS / POSB bank urges customers to keep the bank updated of their current contact number in order to receive real-time SMS alerts from the bank. The bank has also stated that customers can choose to lower their daily ATM cash withdrawal limit at any branch. Lastly, the bank also encourages customers to change their PINs regularly.

This repeated incident has dealt damages to the bank's reputation even greater, as some people call it "humiliation".

Since the bank has again fully compensated all affected customers, it shows their willingness to solve any similar incident in future, which will retain the trust of most customers. This means that the bank will be absorbing all damages.

However, comments from netizens at Yahoo! News were mostly negative. Some of them are demanding the CEO to step down like the ex COE of SMRT - Ms Saw.

There is also an interesting comment - "Looks like Biscuit Tins are more secure than banks".

"What about those who don't check their account balances? If they hadn't realised the loss of money, does it mean then it's gone?" - if anyone happens to know the answer to one of the commenters, do inform us.

We believe that the Singapore bank will improve its security to fight against future card skimming operation.

There should be security CCTVs at all ATMs and we hope the bank would be able to identify the fraudsters.

DBS / POSB ATM Card Fraud Security Improvements

It has been more than a month since the DBS/POSB ATM card fraud has occured in Singapore (or rather, in Malaysia) and some security features have long been implemented.

The bank has returned all the affected customers' money in full to reduce the lost of trust. We have heard that not all banks, except banks in Singapore, would have done the same.

What DBS/POSB has lost is their reputation and a small portion of customers who are wary of the same incident happening again, but the tide will be over soon. Banks in Singapore are much more secured than banks in many other countries because of Singapore government's strong financial backup. The fact that most Singapore residents own a DBS/POSB bank account each makes the bank strong for it is easier for money transaction between the accounts; besides, many Singapore residents depend on the GIRO payment service.

The bank was quick to analyse the victims' records of their interaction with ATM machines, scaled down the search and discovered issues with two ATM machines in Bugis that had been tampered with. The company did not announce the exact ATM machines even though they had fixed the problem. Two Malaysians were also caught by Singapore police force for possession of devices that could read and steal ATM card information.

DBS/POSB has claimed that the most important security feature that would jerk the ATM card to prevent external device from reading the card when inserting into the ATM machine would slow down the process; and thus, the bank did not activate the feature in all ATM machines. Instead, they have deployed other security features, such as the CCTV.

A major security feature being implemented after the card fraud incident is the suspension of overseas withdrawal. If you try to withdraw money using your DBS/POSB ATM card at overseas, you have to call the bank to activate it. As told by an affected customer, the activation would only allow a single transaction; thereafter, the ATM card holder has to call the bank again to activate it. If you try withdrawing money three times without activating it, your bank account will be suspended.

This is a good security feature for DBS/POSB customers who do not travel out of Singapore but the smaller portion of customers would have to bear with it.

All banks in Singapore are looking at improving the ATM cards and replacement would probably be made within two years.

Meanwhile, customers should try to help the bank and themselves by observing if the ATM machines are being tampered. This is difficult since very few people are experts in the ATM's design. Customers can also change their PINs regularly, which most people would not do for they are glad enough to remember their existing numbers. However, there is one last thing that a responsible customer should do - cover the number pad and fingers when he/she is keying the PINs. Many Singaporeans would have skipped that as they are afraid of "losing face" (embarrassment) for being "kia si" (afraid to die), but nothing beats securing the PINs so that money would not be lost.

Everyone should start the ball rolling by covering their fingers with the other hand when keying their ATM PINs. Let this be a norm and not something that people should feel embarrassed for doing.

Thanks Eve Lim for the contribution.