Food scams have been on the rise lately, with con artists posing as legitimate food sellers on social media. The scary bit? They’ve gotten slicker — victims in Singapore have been cheated of close to $100K in the past few months alone. Many of these stories begin with seemingly innocuous ads on social media sites like Facebook.

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 Healthy meal ‘deal’ that lost victim $18K

Deng, 59, was scrolling through Facebook on July 25 when she saw an advertisement for a “Healthy Box”, a meal delivery service that supposedly cost $58 for a five-day trial. She tells Shin Min Daily News that she contacted the seller, who asked her questions about her dietary requirements and spoke rather professionally, causing her to believe it wasn’t a legitimate deal. 

Deng was later instructed to download a third party app called “Grain” to place her order, before being told to PayNow a $10 deposit to the seller. Soon after, Deng realised that a whopping $18K had been transferred out of her bank account, and that the scammer had raised her funds transfer limit from $1K to $25K. She has since made a police report.

$300 worth of dud durians from dodgy door-to-door salesman 

On July 28, Ma Yulian, 84, was cheated of over $300 when purchasing durians from a door-to-door durian seller in his twenties. According to Shin Min Daily News, the sales man claimed to have come from Malaysia, and asked the lady to pay over RM1000 (over S$300) for eight durians.

At the point of purchase, the seller told Yulian that he only had one premium Musang King durian left to sell her, but that the other durians were of equally good quality. However, her friend, whom she gave three of the durians to, found the durians too watery.

Owners of legitimate durian stores Durian Kaki and Durian Garden studied photos of the durians Yulian received and concluded that they were likely much cheaper Thai durians. As a rough comparison, MSW durians currently cost around $19/kg at Durian Kakis, while a whole Thai durian (weighing about 3kg to 5kg each) typically costs $15. As of now, Yulian hasn’t filed a police report. Moral of the story? Check your purchases on the spot to verify its quality, especially when dealing with itinerant sales men.

$8 crispy crab rolls ended up costing $7,430

A third party app was also involved in this scam. Shin Min Daily News reported that on 1 June, a 59-year-old woman surnamed Li was swindled of over $7K when trying to purchase $8 boxes of "crispy crab rolls" via a Facebook ad. She told the newspaper that she didn't think this was a scam as the $8 price tag wasn't suspiciously low.

She was told to download a third party app through a link, which required her to fill in her bank account information. As Li began to get suspicious, she didn’t follow through with the payment. Soon after, she began receiving phone calls, both from the scammer and another person claiming to be from a bank, asking her for her personal details. The next day, she was notified that $7,430.20 was transferred out of her account. She lodged a police report immediately.

Lady lost over $50K life savings on fictitious $6/kg MSW Durians

This scam takes place on Facebook as well. Koh, 50, had been tempted by ads for super cheap durians on Facebook. According to Shin Min Daily News, she reached out to a seller named “TMZ Fresh” on May 4. TMZ claimed to sell Mao Shan Wang durians for just $6/kg (an unheard of price for MSW) and D24 durians for merely $3/kg. Koh was instructed to download an app called “E2 Mall” and key in her personal details. As her payment kept getting rejected, the seller even asked her to visit her bank to get a token to fill in her details. He became uncontactable soon after she did as instructed. On May 7, Koh realised that two transactions of $27,549 and $26,231 were made on May 6, causing her to lose almost all her life savings of $53,780.  

Actor Charlie Goh paid $160 for salmon & wagyu that never arrived

On February 25, local actor Charlie Goh, 34, saw an ad on Facebook selling Norwegian salmon at $60 for 3kg, much cheaper than it usually cost at other retailers (for instance, NTUC FairPrice sells Norwegian salmon for $5.70/100g, which amounts to $171 for 3kg). The actor decided to purchase $160 worth of salmon and wagyu beef from the seller, who even promised delivery by 6pm on the same day. 

When he did not receive his goods by 7pm, Charlie attempted to contact the seller and realised that he’d been blocked. The actor took to Instagram to rant about the unfortunate incident, and has since made a police report.

How to avoid being scammed

• Don’t download unknown apps to make payments.  
   
• One way to suss out such apps is to “be wary of many downloads with few or no reviews”, or apps with “a poorly written description”, says regional VP for cyber security firm Palo Alto Networks, Steven Scheurmann. He tells 8days.sg that scammers may “prompt users to unknowingly download a malicious app containing a virus, spyware, trojan or other types of malware”. He also says to only download verifiable apps, like those with the “Verified by Play Protect” labels in the Google Play Store. 
   
• The Singapore Police Force advises buyers against “making upfront payments to bank accounts belonging to unknown individuals”. Many scammers ask customers for PayNow deposits to their personal accounts. To be safe, ensure that the transactions you make are to legitimate businesses or on official websites.
   
• SPF also warns against clicking on URL links on pop-up advertisements, and advises customers to “visit the official website by typing the web address directly into the address bar of your browser to verify the validity of the promotion” instead.
   
• The National Crime Prevention Council’s scam prevention site, Scam Alert, says to “be wary of good deals”. In other words, if a product or price is too good to be true, it probably is. 
   
• Another common sign you’re getting scammed, according to Scam Alert, is when a seller “asks for multiple payments”, so be cautious if they ask for admin fees or freight charges. 

Photos: Mint Hou/Facebook, Charlie Goh/Instagram

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