Scammers target people selling gaming accounts online

Scammers are preying on people who post game accounts for sale online, tricking them into paying to "unfreeze" fake e-wallet accounts. They would express interest in buying the gaming accounts and direct victims to fake websites to create e-wallets to receive payment, the police said yesterday.

Some fake websites used are baowushouyou.com, bianjieshouyou.com, 85shouyou.com and xinyushouyou.com, where "shouyou" refers to mobile games.

When applying to create the e-wallets, victims would come across "Terms and Conditions" indicating that a fee is incurred if there are errors in their applications. After setting up their e-wallets, they would receive WhatsApp calls or messages from numbers typically starting with "+6011", the country code for Malaysia.

The caller, usually speaking in Mandarin, would claim to be a customer service officer from the e-wallet firm and would tell the victims their e-wallet accounts had been frozen due to application errors. After the "buyers" had purportedly paid into the e-wallet for the game accounts, the victims would be told to make a fund transfer to bank accounts provided, so as to unfreeze their e-wallet accounts to withdraw the funds.

In some cases, victims were asked to transfer more money, as the initial amount transferred was incorrect. They would realise they had been tricked when they were unable to withdraw the funds from the e-wallet and the buyers became uncontactable. The victims would retain their gaming accounts.

Screenshots from one victim showed scammers telling him to transfer $500, to unfreeze the $500 paid to his account by the "buyer" after having made an "error" in his application. But after the transfer, the scammer, using technical language, said the instructions were for the victim to have transferred $501 instead, and his account had been frozen a second time. To unfreeze the $1,000 now, the victim has to transfer $2,000.

Police said the public should be wary of dubious websites claiming to provide e-wallet services, and any requests for fund transfers to strangers' bank accounts.

Those with information related to such crimes can call the police hotline on 1800-255-0000, or submit it online at www.police.gov.sg/iwitness.

Those who require urgent police assistance can call 999. For more information on scams, visit www.scamalert.sg or call the Anti-Scam Hotline on 1800-722-6688.