Stop Scams podcast: The day a senior in his 60s fell for a 'Carousell' job scam

In Singapore, nearly $1 billion has been lost by scam victims since 2016. Mutating and spreading, different types of scams have infiltrated every aspect of our lives, from romance to work. The police are cracking down on offenders. What can you do to protect yourself?

In the series’ sixth episode, ST’s deputy news editor Andre Yeo, crime correspondent David Sun and journalist Jessie Lim speak with Ms Jessica Chen, a policy and escalation manager at Carousell and Ms Lavone Toh, an associate product manager also with the e-commerce marketplace. 

Both of them talked about the emergence of job scams involving the impersonation of Carousell staff and some of Carousell’s safety features, such as pop-up reminders within chats which warn customers when they are eyeing popular items known to have false listings, such as staycation deals.

Highlights (click/tap above):

6:01 How a senior in his 60s showed up at Carousell’s headquarters in Buona Vista demanding to see “Amy”, a scammer who cheated him of $2,000 in a job scam 

12:41 How Carousell removes thousands of suspicious listings every month and tell-tale signs

14:41 New initiatives Carousell has embarked on to tackle scams and how user feedback helps the e-commerce marketplace identify threats 

18:13 How Carousell balances consumer safety and satisfaction, with the launch of the E-Commerce Marketplace Transaction Safety Ratings earlier in 2022 

21:45 Why people should not sell their Carousell accounts to other users who can list fake items on them