Commercial crimes up in 2011

Cases of failure to deliver goods and services rose to 493.

The Singapore Police Force reported:

The slight increase in Commercial Crimes in 2011 was mainly attributed to increases in cheating and related offences, which rose from 3,501 cases in 2010 to 3,578 cases.

In particular, Police have observed a rising trend in cheating and related offences using the following modus operandi: a. Failure to deliver goods and services; b. Inducing victims to purchase counterfeit/worthless goods; c. Continued prevalence of ‘Kidnap’, ‘Lottery’ Phone and ‘Internet Love’ Scams.

Cases of failure to deliver goods and services rose by 169 cases (or +52%), from 324 cases in 2010 to 493 cases. These cases mainly involved victims who made purchases after responding to advertisements from culprits – often over the Internet, but eventually did not receive the items or services paid for.

Some examples include holiday packages offered with attractive discounts, car rental offers, and hotel accommodation packages. One other notable trend is that most of these ‘failure to deliver goods and services’ cases usually involved more than one victim as the medium chosen by the perpetrators enabled them to easily reach out to mass audiences.

Cases of inducing victims to purchase counterfeit/worthless goods saw a rise of 50 cases (or +135%), from 37 cases in 2010 to 87 cases. In these cases, the perpetrators would offer to sell items like gold, luxury watches or electronic products to victims, when the items were in fact counterfeits or worthless. In all, about S$$345,760/- was cheated in 2011 through such cases.

Given today’s high Internet penetration rate with consumers increasingly conducting monetary transactions over the Internet, the increase in cheating and relating offences involving the above modus operandi is not unexpected.

Over the Internet, consumers should make purchases through licensed, reputed and accredited companies. They should be cautious and conduct checks especially so when the deal appears too good to be true. They should ideally carry out their transactions face-to-face when dealing with the other party for the first time. Consumers who suspect that they have fallen prey to scams should call the Police immediately.