Due to the emergence of e-commerce related scams in Singapore, police has advised people to be careful while booking tickets for the upcoming concerts of BTS, Josh Groban, Ed Sheeran and John Mayer.
The BTS will perform at Singapore National Stadium on Saturday, January 19 while American singer Josh Groban will stage his debut concert in the at The Star Theatre on February 25, followed by Ed Sheeran's concert, which will take place Singapore National Stadium on February 26. The Grammy award winner John Mayer will also perform at Singapore Indoor Stadium on April 1.
In a news release, the Singapore Police Force (SPF) stated that in 2018 the authority had received more than 200 reports of e-commerce scams involving sales of concert and event tickets. They noticed that in such cases the victims either did not receive the tickets or received invalid tickets after payments were made.
They asked people to follow few prevention measures to avoid being a victim of such scams and these are:
- Don't be impulsive – Be wary of online advertisements of concert/show 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 – Scammers may use a local bank account or provide a copy of an NRIC/driver's licence to make you believe that they are genuine sellers. Do not fall for it!
- As you are dealing with strangers, avoid making payments or deposits in advance and try to use shopping platforms/arrangements that release your payment to the seller only upon receiving the item.
- People can arrange to meet the seller and pay only after collecting your tickets.
- Bear in mind that the tickets may be invalid upon entry as they are duplicated tickets. You are therefore advised to purchase only from authorised sellers.
If any member of the public has information about such scams then they can contact the police through the hotline at 1800-255-0000, or submit the information at www.police.gov.sg/iwitness. In case of urgent police assistance, people can dial '999.'
To receive more information about scams, people can also call the anti-scam helpline at 1800-722-6688 or go to www.scamalert.sg.
In addition, the SPF asked the citizens to join "the 'let's fight scams' campaign at www.scamalert.sg/fight by signing up as an advocate to receive up-to-date messages and share them with your family and friends. Together, we can help stop scams and prevent our loved ones from becoming the next victim."
