Police warn of job scams involving buying and selling movie tickets

SINGAPORE: A job scam involving buying and selling movie tickets has re-emerged, the Singapore Police Force (SPF) said on Monday (Feb 21). 

Scammers would typically befriend victims on messaging apps, then convince them that they could earn commissions through buying or “boosting” movie tickets through a website.

After signing up for an account on the website, victims are told they have to top up the account with money to "boost" the tickets and earn a commission.

The scammers would then provide the victims with bank accounts belonging to unknown people for payments to be made.

“Victims would be convinced that their work was legitimate as their accounts would indicate the commission they received after completing the jobs,” said SPF.

“Subsequently, the victims would be instructed to continue to top up their accounts to complete more tasks.”

Victims would later discover that they are unable to withdraw the money from their accounts.

The police said they have seen at least 189 cases of job scams since the start of this year.

According to figures released last week, jobs scams were the most common scam type last year. There were 4,554 reported cases in 2021 compared to 132 reported cases in 2020.

The amounts cheated soared to at least S$91 million in 2021, up from at least S$217,000 the year before.

On Monday, the police reiterated their advice for people not to accept dubious job offers that "offer lucrative returns for minimal effort".

“Never download applications from unverified sources, and never send money to anyone whom you do not know or have not met in person,” they added.