Photographers set up trap to catch alleged scammer after losing thousands

SINGAPORE — Smarting after being scammed out of thousands of dollars' worth of camera equipment, two local photographers decided to fight back — by laying a trap to nab the scammer.

This eventually led to the arrest of a 21-year-old man, but the shutterbugs believe that he is not the only perpetrator of the scam, and that others also behind it are still at large.

Three victims whom The Straits Times spoke to said that in this scam, which first came to light in September, the scammer would borrow camera equipment from those loaning out their gadgets and, instead of returning them, sell off the goods to second-hand shops.

The perpetrator, or perpetrators, found two of the victims whom ST spoke to through listings to rent out personal photography equipment on Carousell, while the third is the owner of a camera rental business.

By the time the victims realised that they had been scammed, their items had in most cases already been sold off to second-hand shops or, worse, resold by these shops.

In hopes of putting an end to the scam, two of the victims decided to set up a trap by luring one of the scammers to a location.

One of the two is Marcus Chong, 31, a photographer and owner of camera equipment rental house JustRentLah.

Chong told ST his business would have lost about $16,000, had he not acted quickly and set the trap.

The scam ended up costing JustRentLah $1,650. About $1,300 of it was spent buying back equipment that had been sold off to a second-hand shop.

Chong suspected that JustRentLah had been scammed after he saw an Instagram post about the scammer, which was shared with him by another victim.

Recognising certain "patterns" in the social media post — which featured screengrabs of an exchange between the scammer and victim over Carousell — Chong said his gut instinct told him that a customer who had visited his shop earlier that day on Sep 17 was the same scammer.

Chong immediately called the customer to arrange for a meet-up, under the pretext that he would hand over some equipment that his office had forgotten to include in the customer's order.

"This created the opportunity to coordinate with the police and... set up a trap," he added.

While Chong was on his way to the meet-up location that same day, another victim working with him to try to nab the suspected scammer alerted the police about the meeting, which was to take place at Swissotel The Stamford.

At the meet-up location, Chong confronted the alleged scammer while waiting for the police to arrive.

"(The scammer) mentioned that it was a quick cash job, which he found on Telegram... He did it for only $100," said Chong.

The man also told Chong that he already had sold off some of Chong's equipment earlier that day.

JustRentLah has since stepped up its verification process following the incident. It now requests client portfolios from customers seeking to rent photography equipment.

In response to an ST query, the police said they had received a call for assistance at 2 Stamford Road on Sep 17 at about 6pm. They added that a 21-year-old man was arrested for cheating.

Investigations are ongoing.

More cases, even after arrest

The man's arrest, however, did not put a stop to the scam.

One victim, who asked to be known only as Ho, told ST that he was contacted by a user on Carousell on Nov 3 requesting to rent his Sony A7 II camera and two lenses.

The items were supposed to be returned to him on Nov 14, but Ho has not seen his camera and lenses since he handed the equipment over to the man on Nov 7.

Ho suspected that he was a victim when the scammer claimed that the camera was faulty on the same day the equipment was handed over, after they parted ways, but was unwilling to show more proof.

Ho said he then went to the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority's e-service website to check on the NRIC credentials provided by the alleged scammer, and found that the NRIC had been reported lost.

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He decided to file a police report on Nov 8. He lost about $2,500 worth of equipment in total.

A spate of similar scams had hit the camera rental community in 2017, as well as in 2019 and 2020, according to posts by photography community Our Shutter Journey.

There are thought to be at least 10 victims of the scam this time around.

Another victim, who gave his name only as Tan, told ST that he has scoured the local photography community discussions online in a bid to find others who had fallen prey to the scam since he lost $5,000 worth of equipment himself in September.

The biggest loss suffered by a victim due to the ruse was about $25,000, he said.

Tan said he last communicated with the scammer that duped him on Sep 16, and reported the scammer's account to Carousell. The account was then banned.

Carousell said it is aware of the cases, and will not hesitate to suspend and ban user accounts if it finds sufficient grounds to do so.

It advised users to be wary of those who refuse to carry out transactions through the Buy button on Carousell or other digital payment methods such as PayNow.

"There is a high chance the seller wants to deal in cash to avoid a digital footprint in the event of police investigation," it said.

Users should also keep their chats on the app, said Carousell, adding that it has systems in place that can help to detect fraudulent behaviour.

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This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.