We thank Mr N. Nageswaran for his letter “Do more to stop rental scammers” (Dec 15).

The Council for Estate Agencies (CEA) advises consumers to verify the legitimacy of advertisements that they come across by checking if the property agents are registered with CEA.

To do so, consumers can search for the phone number used by the property agent in the advertisement on the CEA Public Register (https://www.cea.gov.sg/ public-register), which lists all registered property agents.

Under CEA’s regulations, property agents must use only their name and registered phone number with CEA in their advertisements.

If the name of the property agent and the registered phone number do not match the records in the CEA Public Register, consumers should be extra careful, as the advertisement could be a scam.

After verification, consumers can contact the property agency to further verify the authenticity of the property listing.

Consumers should also view the rental property in person to verify that it exists and are advised not to pay any fee or deposit to view or rent a property without verifying the legitimacy of the advertisement.

We agree with Mr Nageswaran on the importance of raising awareness. CEA works closely with the Singapore Police Force to tackle rental scams by publishing anti-property scam advisories and scammers’ common tactics, so as to educate property consumers, including foreigners, not to fall prey to rental scams.

The information can be found on CEA’s Rental Scam webpage (https://www.cea.gov.sg/consumers/rental-scams).

Chan Kwok Cheong
Director (Investigation & Inspection)
Council for Estate Agencies