Woman who tried to sell designer bag on Carousell lost nearly S$10,000 instead

The woman clicked on a link in an e-mail she received, after the scammers told her they had made payment on CarouPay. - LIANHE ZAOBAO

SINGAPORE (The Straits Times/Asia News Network): A woman who tried to sell her pre-owned Louis Vuitton bag for S$3,400 ended up losing close to $10,000 to a scam, and she wanted to share her story to remind others that sellers can fall prey to e-commerce scams too.

The woman, who wants to be known as Lee, was targeted by scammers who posed as buyers on Carousell.

On June 21, the scammers expressed interest in her bag and one of them claimed to have made a payment for it via CarouPay, an in-app payment method on the platform, Shin Min Daily News reported on Wednesday.

An e-mail then arrived in Lee’s inbox, confirming that she had received payment on CarouPay. However, she did not have that payment method set up.

In order for the payment to be processed, she was prompted to click on a link in the e-mail, which directed her to what appeared to be a Carousell website, she told Shin Min.

On the website, she was asked to set up CarouPay in order to receive the payment.

After she completed the steps, Lee received two transfer notices informing her that $9,900 from her account was being remitted overseas. Sensing that something was amiss, she immediately logged on to her DBS account to lower her fund transfers limit.

She then contacted her bank to freeze her account and made a police report.

Speaking to The Straits Times, Lee said DBS contacted her on June 23 to assure her that its team had followed up on her case, and her lost money would be returned to her account in three to five days.

She said she received the full amount on the same day, and was immensely grateful for the bank’s assistance.

She also wanted the public to know that scammers are targeting both buyers and sellers on e-commerce platforms, so all users should be careful when making transactions on these platforms.

In response to The Straits Times’ queries, Carousell’s team said it had conducted an investigation and confirmed that the scammer’s account had been suspended on June 21.

The e-commerce platform also said it has rolled out initiatives such as Sell to Carousell and Carousell Certified programme to make transactions safer.

In response to queries, the police reiterated that there has been an observable resurgence of a phishing scam variant involving fake buyers on Carousell and Facebook.

In June, at least 84 victims had fallen prey to such scams, with reported losses amounting to at least $177,000.