{"id":1296,"date":"2015-06-02T21:03:01","date_gmt":"2015-06-02T13:03:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gametrader.sg\/blog\/?p=1296"},"modified":"2015-06-02T21:06:47","modified_gmt":"2015-06-02T13:06:47","slug":"staying-vigilant-when-buying-online","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gametrader.sg\/blog\/staying-vigilant-when-buying-online\/","title":{"rendered":"Staying vigilant when buying online"},"content":{"rendered":"

[This article was first\u00a0published at www.jaxxie.me<\/a>]<\/p>\n

As promised in my previous post<\/a>, I will be sharing how scammers make use of online marketplace platform to\u00a0scam unknowing buyers. Most of the content below are derived from my experience in running GameTrader.SG<\/a> and GadgetTrader.SG<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rise of consumer-to-consumer trading platform<\/strong><\/p>\n

A few year back, Yahoo Auction was arguably the king of online trading platform in Singapore. Even Ebay was not a strong competition to Yahoo Auction at that time.\u00a0Online classified such as 88db<\/a>\u00a0and GumTree<\/a>\u00a0were always there too but they never gained critical mass or become super popular.\u00a0Yahoo\u00a0Auction Singapore was then shut down in 2008 and\u00a0the popularity of C2C marketplace declined.<\/p>\n

Fast forward to today, there are now many platforms for people to buy and sell their stuff. Amongst them are general trading platforms such as\u00a0Carousell<\/a>, Qoo10<\/a>\u00a0and the recent\u00a0Trezo<\/a>\u00a0by SPH. There are also more dedicated ones like SgCarMart<\/a>,\u00a0GameTrader.SG<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0GadgetTrader.SG<\/a>\u00a0which cater to a specific genre of items.<\/p>\n

Of course the most impressive platform is none other than Carousell which raised $6M late last year<\/a> and have experienced tremendous growth in terms of user base.<\/p>\n

Most sellers on these platform are genuine individuals. However, online scams are on the rise and the authorities have even created website<\/a> to educate the public. You may think that you are an experienced online shopper and you will not fall for such scams.\u00a0You maybe wrong.<\/p>\n

Tell tale signs of a scammer<\/strong><\/p>\n

a) Price of goods is un-un-un-believably cheap<\/strong><\/p>\n

The most\u00a0easy give-away of a scammer which most people tends to ignore is goods sold at ridiculously cheap price.<\/p>\n

\"Cheap<\/a><\/p>\n

For example, you saw this ad online on a PS4 that cost only SGD400. A quick google will reveal that a typical PS4 would cost above $500. Furthermore the set is brand new! Sounds too good to be true? Yes it is too good to be true!<\/p>\n

Typically the seller will only contact you via email or private message (if it is present in the trading platform) so as to hide his identity.\u00a0He will ask you to transfer\u00a0the money to a\u00a0bank account and promise to deliver the goods to you.<\/p>\n

After some time, you realised that the item did not reach you. So you contacted the seller again and he mentioned that the item is stuck at the custom and he would need you to transfer more money to him. And so you did.\u00a0Soon after you realised that\u00a0you\u00a0have been conned, you tried to contact the seller again but there will be no more replies. A police report is your next best option.<\/p>\n

How to avoid<\/em><\/p>\n

To\u00a0prevent yourself from getting scammed, always checked the market price of the item\u00a0of interest before committing to any purchase. If the price is way lower than market price, exercise caution. Ask for a meet-up and\u00a0before making the payment.<\/p>\n

b) Seller uses only email to contact you and not via mobile\u00a0number<\/strong><\/p>\n

The next tell tale sign of a scammer is his mode of contact. Typically, reputable sellers and shops are more than willing to contact you via mobile\u00a0number since it is the fastest and simplest mode of contact.\u00a0As such contact numbers are traceable by the\u00a0police, scammers would prefer to use anonymised mode of contact such as email or any private messaging system on the platform.<\/p>\n

If you asked for the contact number and the seller refused to share, it may be best to walk away from the deal.<\/p>\n

c)\u00a0Making payments via Paypal\/Alipay or even bank account<\/strong><\/p>\n

Other methods includes payment via facilities such as Paypal and Alipay.\u00a0A scammer will typically ask you to make top-up to\u00a0their accounts\u00a0as mode of payment. Unless you are very sure that the seller is reputable, refrain from doing that.<\/p>\n

Transferring money to bank accounts are generally traceable.\u00a0There have been a few cases where scammers\u00a0asked\u00a0buyers to transfer money to a\u00a0bank account. Turns out that the bank account belongs to\u00a0companies that have a prepaid wallet system. Some websites such as 65daigou<\/a>\u00a0allow their user to transfer money into their bank account as a form of top up for their digital wallet.\u00a0The\u00a0credits within the\u00a0wallet\u00a0can then be withdrawn by their user or used for purchases. An email is all it takes to create\u00a0a user account on such sites. So do not think that bank transfer\u00a0are fully traceable.<\/p>\n

Transferring money to foreign banks may be even more difficult for the police to take action. So think twice before sending money overseas.<\/p>\n

How to avoid<\/em><\/p>\n

The best way to avoid such scam is to do cash-on-delivery. Pay in cash only\u00a0upon seeing\u00a0the goods. Meeting up the seller is recommended. If you\u00a0really need to do bank account transfer, you can do a quick google of the bank account number that was passed to you. A private\u00a0bank account should not appear on any websites.<\/p>\n

d) User rating<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is a bit of a no brainer. Of course you would want to deal with someone with a good user rating on the platform. However, you should also be mindful that not all ratings may be genuine. There is nothing to stop a scammer\u00a0from creating multiple accounts. Use\u00a0the ratings as a guideline but not as a foolproof way of filtering out scammers.<\/p>\n

\"User<\/a><\/p>\n

Always stay vigilant<\/strong><\/p>\n

I know this article may sounds like a message from the police but I can assure you that I am not working in the police force. Coming from an operator of online marketplace\u00a0platform, I feel really bad whenever I received emails from the users that they have been scammed on my platform. While we have messages to warn user of potential scammers, some time the system may fail to pick up such individuals.\u00a0It will still be best for our users to understand how such scammers operate and avoid them.<\/p>\n

As\u00a0we get more accustomed to transacting online, we should always stay alert and be mindful that there will always be scammers out there in the wild. So the next time you buy anything online,\u00a0check and double check the credential of the seller before you make the\u00a0purchase.<\/p>\n

Disclaimer: The writer operates both the\u00a0GameTrader.SG<\/a> and GadgetTrader.SG<\/a>\u00a0platform in Singapore.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This article was first\u00a0published at www.jaxxie.me] As promised in my previous post, I will be sharing how scammers make use of online marketplace platform to\u00a0scam unknowing buyers. Most of the content below are derived from my experience in running GameTrader.SG and GadgetTrader.SG. Rise of consumer-to-consumer trading platform A few year back, Yahoo Auction was arguably […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p13AlF-kU","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2912,"url":"https:\/\/www.gametrader.sg\/blog\/the-tech-show-2024-brings-singapores-gaming-scene-to-the-forefront\/","url_meta":{"origin":1296,"position":0},"title":"The Tech Show 2024 Brings Singapore\u2019s Gaming Scene to the Forefront","date":"November 14, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"This November, Singapore Expo will host one of the year\u2019s most anticipated tech events: The Tech Show (TTS) 2024. 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