Over $43,000 misplaced by victims

A 42-year-old girl will probably be charged in courtroom on Wednesday (Nov 16) for her suspected involvement in a sequence of rental scams.

The police mentioned that they obtained eighteen experiences of residence rental scams involving greater than $43,000 misplaced by victims between June and November 2022.

The victims had posted on-line ads searching for a residential unit to lease and the lady had contacted them to supply her unit.

“Unbeknownst to the victims, the lady was within the midst of promoting the unit to a brand new proprietor and had collected advance rental deposits and funds from them earlier than signing on the rental agreements,” police added.

By way of follow-up investigations, officers from Woodlands Police Division established the lady’s identification and arrested her on Monday.

The girl will probably be charged in courtroom with dishonest, which carries a jail time period of as much as 10 years and a wonderful.

Members of the general public are reminded to be cautious of such scams and to undertake the next crime prevention measures:

• Don’t make any advance cost till the tenancy is confirmed, and pay the rental deposit and rents by cheque or by way of financial institution switch for documentary proof;

• Go to the housing unit which you propose to lease to verify its existence, state of situation and indicators of a number of subletting; and

• Confirm the identities of the particular person/s whom you might be coping with and their relationship to the housing unit, particularly when you’re not participating the companies of a licensed property agent or registered salespersons.

For extra info on scams, members of the general public can go to scamalert.sg or name the anti-scam hotline at 1800-722-6688.

Anybody with info on such scams could name the police hotline at 1800-255-0000 or submit info on-line at www.police.gov.sg/iwitness.