The Straits Times Podcasts by The Straits Times

June 14, 2022 S1E6: The day a senior in his 60s fell for a "Carousell" job scam

Synopsis: This is a special-edition podcast series by The Straits Times to raise greater public awareness of the modern scourge of scams in Singapore and globally.

In Singapore, nearly $1 billion has been lost by scam victims since 2016. Mutating and spreading, different types of scams have infiltrated every aspect of our lives, from romance to work. The police are cracking down on offenders. What can you do to protect yourself?

In the series’ sixth episode, ST’s deputy news editor Andre Yeo, crime correspondent David Sun and journalist Jessie Lim speak with Ms Jessica Chen, a policy and escalation manager at Carousell and Ms Lavone Toh, an associate product manager also with the e-commerce marketplace.

Both of them talked about the emergence of job scams involving the impersonation of Carousell staff and some of Carousell’s safety features, such as pop-up reminders within chats which warn customers when they are eyeing popular items known to have false listings, such as staycation deals.

Highlights (click/tap above):

06:01 How a senior in his 60s showed up at Carousell’s headquarters in Buona Vista demanding to see “Amy”, a scammer who cheated him of $2,000 in a job scam

12:41 How Carousell removes thousands of suspicious listings every month and tell-tale signs

14:41 New initiatives Carousell has embarked on to tackle scams and how user feedback helps the e-commerce marketplace identify threats

18:13 How Carousell balances consumer safety and satisfaction, with the launch of the E-Commerce Marketplace Transaction Safety Ratings earlier in 2022

21:45 Why people should not sell their Carousell accounts to other users who can list fake items on them

Produced by: Andre Yeo ([email protected]), Jessie Lim ([email protected]), David Sun ([email protected]), Ernest Luis, Teo Tong Kai and Paxton Pang

Edited by: Teo Tong Kai

Read ST's Stop Scams articles: https://str.sg/wWt9

• Anti-Scam Hotline: 1800-722-6688 (9am - 5pm); https://www.scamalert.sg/

• National Care Hotline: 1800-202-6868 (8am - 12am); https://ccs.org.sg/nch/

Follow ST's Stop Scams podcast series here:

Stop Scams Channel: https://str.sg/wuZB

Apple Podcasts: https://str.sg/wu3e

Spotify: https://str.sg/wuJj

Google Podcasts: https://str.sg/wE7S

SPH Awedio app: https://www.awedio.sg/