Singapore has an excellent reputation as being one of the safest countries in the world, and was once described by CNBC as a city where "shops don’t even lock up". However, despite a decrease in violent and serious property crime, scams increased by 54% in 2019. Not only were these scams more prevalent, they were costly: amounting to S$168 million in 2019, up S$23 million from 2018. In this article, we provide insights to help consumers avoid falling victim to a costly scam.

More than half of the reported scams in 2019 fell under the categories of e-commerce or loan scams. In many of these cases, victims are presented with an enticing “good deal”. These offers hooked them into thinking that meeting the monetary demand of the initiator is only a small price to pay for the premium deals