Beware online cheats posing as PayPal
Police looking into 27 cases; victims swindled out of about $33,000
Published on Jul 22, 2014 6:18 AM
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Police are investigating at least 27 cases of an online scam in which victims were duped of around $33,000 after receiving fake e-mail notifications. -- ST PHOTO: DESMOND FOO
By Aw Cheng Wei
Police are investigating at least 27 cases of an online scam in which victims were duped of around $33,000 after receiving fake e-mail notifications.
The tricksters posed as online payment giant PayPal and sent the e-mails to sellers on various e-commerce sites such as Gumtree, eBay and STClassifieds pretending that payments had been made for fake transactions.
The sellers then shipped goods such as dresses, cellphone accessories and bags - for which they were never paid - to the overseas address given.
Police have warned online sellers always to verify payments using their PayPal accounts before sending merchandise.
