Scammer tries to cheat seller of $3.5k watch with fake email from 'PayPal', gets hold of his IC

Making transactions on PayPal? Make sure that the email notifications you get are really from PayPal. Here's how to tell.

Stomper Eddy had listed his luxury watch for sale online at $3,500, but nearly fell victim to a scammer who pretended to be a legitimate and genuine buyer.

He said: "The buyer seemed so genuine and would go out of her way to make you exchange your Identification Card (IC) with her to gain your trust.

(Eddy and the scammer exchanged pictures of their IC)

"After much negotiation, she offered $3,500.

"Her story was that she is a real estate agent who is overseas and and would like to buy a gift for her business partner based in Philippines.

"She requested that I send the item through FedEx without insurance, claiming that the cost with insurance is much higher.

"She also said that she would only pay for the item using PayPal. She asked that I make a payment request to her email using PayPal.

"She then sent me an email seemingly from PayPal to my email. However, the email appeared in my junk mail and did not belong to PayPal at all.

(Always check the sender's email address: The email claiming to be from service@paypal.com.sg was in fact from paypal@serviceonlinepay.com)

"She is using an Australian number and identifies herself as Angela. I am not sure if this is really her as this is obviously a scam, so the person might be using a fake or stolen IC.

"I have exchanged my IC with her so I am here to caution my fellow Singaporeans not to fall to prey to this scam."

Unfortunately, Eddy had covered only the date of issue on his IC when sending a picture to the scammer.

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