2 more S'pore businesses receive fake bulk order from 'SCGS staff', orders total over S$12,080

Two more Singaporean businesses have become targets of the fake bulk order scam by a person impersonating a staff member of Singapore Chinese Girls' School (SCGS).

These come after a local Mediterranean restaurant, HaPiHa, received a call from an 'SCGS staff' on Sep. 11 for a bulk school event booking.

Placed order for S$8,000 worth of bedding

Russell Koh, owner of bedding and mattress business Simply Dreams, told Mothership that he received a call from someone claiming to represent SCGS on Sep. 16.

Koh said that the person spoke in Mandarin, so he responded in kind.

The person requested 30 bedding sets as gifts for teachers, and asked for them to be delivered on Thursday (Sep. 18).

The quoted order value was more than S$8,000.

"The person said the principal had agreed to the quotation, and that the quotation had already been sent to their finance department for processing," Koh shared.

According to the 'SCGS staff', the payment would be processed on Sep. 17 at around 10am.

Koh noted that the person did not request for an invoice or issue a purchase order.

When Koh requested for a purchase order, the 'SCGS staff' insisted that the payment would be made solely on the quotation.

The person then sent screenshots of the school name and address to Koh via WhatsApp.

"These are red flags, and I didn't think much of them until I saw the articles," Koh explained, referencing the experience shared by HaPiHa on Sep. 16.

Thankfully, Koh realised it early enough and didn't prepare the order, thus avoiding financial losses.

Ordered fruits, asked for mattresses

Separately, Ping, the owner of Naybayla Durian, told Mothership that they had similarly received an order from someone claiming to be a staff member of SCGS on Sep. 15.

The messages were sent from a different phone number than the one used to contact Koh, but the person also spoke in Mandarin.

The 'staff' placed an order for 180 boxes of grapes and 80 boxes of durians, with an order value of S$4,080.

When asked for a delivery address, the person proceeded to send a screenshot of the SCGS address.

"He kept calling me to ask if the order was confirmed," Ping said.

The next day, the person reached out again and asked Ping for assistance in ordering 40 mattresses, saying they were needed by the afternoon.

Ping rejected the person's request, explaining that they were not in the mattress business.

She also told the 'SCGS staff' that the order would be cancelled if payment was not received by 3pm that afternoon.

Fake bulk order scam

Linda Chan, principal of SCGS, told Mothership on Sep. 16 that the school was aware of the situation and that a police report had been made.

Since Sep. 9, a slew of fake bulk order scams have struck local businesses, including eateries and florists.

The scams follow a similar pattern where a person, claiming to be a member of an organisation, would place a large order and refuse to pay in advance.

They would vanish when it came time for collection, leaving businesses in the lurch.

They may also make unusual requests for help buying unrelated items.

Previously, the fraudsters impersonated Mindef personnel and placed food orders.

Mindef later confirmed on Sep. 14 that these were fraudulent and that it was aware of seven such cases at the time.

On Sep. 16, the police arrested three individuals in connection with the scam.

One of the three, a 22-year-old woman from Sri Lanka, was charged in court on Sep. 17 for allowing her DBS account to be used in the scam.

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Top image via Russell Koh, Ping