Cheating e-commerce cases Singapore 2014-2023

In 2023, e-commerce scam cases increased to just under 9,800 from around 4,762 cases the previous year. With e-commerce transactions increasing in Singapore with every year, such scams would most likely become more prevalent. 

Exploiting the trust of buyers and sellers

Scams involving e-commerce was among the leading types of scams reported in that year. Victims of such scams were cheated out of a total of 21.3 million Singapore dollars. This, however, was just a fraction of the losses caused by other types of scams common in Singapore. This was likely due to the nature of e-commerce scams, usually involving C2C or B2C transactions. These tend to take place more often on C2C e-commerce sites, such as Carousell or Shopee. Common transactions included the dishonest and fraudulent sale of electronic items, concert tickets, hotel room bookings and vehicle rentals.

Overall state of crime in Singapore

While incidences of major crimes in Singapore had been decreasing in the last ten years, commercial crimes such as frauds and scams have been on the rise. The increase in such cases has pushed the crime rate in Singapore to a ten-year high. Even so, it remains one of the safest cities in the world.