Woman scammed of $7,000 over crab rolls due to 'cash on delivery' promise

Lulled into a false sense of security by an online seller's promise of "cash on delivery", one woman ended up getting scammed of over $7,000 after trying to buy a box of $8 crab rolls.

The 59-year-old woman, surnamed Li, told Shin Min Daily News that she'd seen a Facebook advertisement on June 1 for "crispy crab rolls" and contacted the seller via WhatsApp.

Li, a drinks hawker, shared that she had the intention to buy 10 boxes for her family even though the price of $8 per box wasn't exactly cheap.

However, it was precisely due to the price point that Li allowed herself to let her guard down.

"I'm in the F&B business and I know that cheap food sold online are often scams. So I wasn't suspicious of the seller as I saw that the crab rolls were not on promotion and payment was by cash on delivery," said Li.

After contacting the seller, the other party confirmed the order and sent a link promoting their meat products and desserts. They also sent another link requesting Li to download an app to pay a deposit of $5.

Li shared that she thought nothing of it and proceeded to click on the link, which brought her to a bank payment page. But as she was putting in her credit card details, she suddenly recalled that she should be careful about doing so on third-party applications and immediately backed out of the transaction.

"The interface kept showing that it was 'processing' but I didn't key in any other details and exited. At the time I simply thought that if it was so troublesome then I wouldn't buy the item," said Li.

However, Li shared that her phone subsequently appeared to be in the process of "downloading something", and could not function properly.

Li told Shin Min that she soon received a call from the seller, urging her to check her bank account statements for two unknown transactions. Li added that the seller called her every hour to report the issue. But when Li opened the bank app, she found that she could not log in.

In the interim, Li shared that she'd also received a call from a woman who claimed to be a bank employee. Li rejected the caller's request for her personal details. 

The next day, however, Li received an email notification which stated that the transfer limit for her bank account had been raised to $10,000 the day before, and an amount of $7,430.20 had been successfully transferred.

Li made a police report on June 2.

Money included donations meant for charity

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Li told Shin Min that the money that was scammed included her monthly salary as well as donations collected for charity. She shared that friends had helped to raise $5,000 for a nursing home in Thailand that Li donates to annually.

She has since told her friends about the scam and that she would take responsibility for the losses. However, she has not dared to tell her family about the incident.

"I consider myself someone who's very careful. Years ago I bought a German rice cooker online for my daughter and paid hundreds of dollars, only to have the other party go missing. Since then I've been on the watch for such internet scams," Li told Shin Min.

She added that her bank account had over $60,000 originally, but was thankful that most of it had been transferred to a joint account she holds with her son.

"If I hadn't transferred that $60,000 out, I'm sure it would have been gone," Li stated.

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candicecai@asiaone.com