International student ghosted by S'pore 'property agent' on day of condo key collection after paying deposit & 2-month rent

Rachel (not her real name) found a listing for a Redhill condo unit on Facebook Marketplace.

She then reached out to the agent, Ron (not real name, we'll come back to him), at 1:42pm.

Ron took a while to respond, but eventually got to her at about 4:08pm.

Which seems like a very property agent-ish message.

Unfortunately, the Redhill unit had been taken, but Ron had a very handy backup plan.

Plans were made for the next day, Sep. 29, at around 6:30pm.

Unfortunately, Ron had a meeting that was going long, so his colleague Kai (not real name but sounds similar) met Rachel instead. Kai was wearing a supposed Propnex ID card.

Kai brought Rachel and a friend into the condominium to show them around the unit. The whole viewing took about 30 minutes.

Things moved quickly, and a rental agreement was hashed out.

About three days after first inquiring about a potential rental at Redhill, the deal at Queens Peak was supposedly done.

Rachel sent S$7,800 to the purported owner's Bank of China account.

They agreed to meet on Oct. 6 at noon to hand the keys over to Rachel.

Unfortunately, that never happened.

Convincing

This was Rachel's first time renting a place in Singapore. She is an international student who came to Singapore on a bond-free award for students with excellent academic undergraduate and/or master's results.

Ron, and probably Kai, do not appear to be actual property agents.

But according to documents and correspondence shared by Rachel with Mothership, he did a great job of pretending to be one.

As mentioned above, the messages appear to match how a property agent texts.

The property agent registration number he used matched an actual property agent, with the same name, in Propnex.

Mothership understands that the actual listed agent was not in charge of the property, which probably means the purported scammer used his likeness and details.

The eventual tenancy agreement was also incredibly convincing.

Here's the first page.

An agent Mothership showed this page to said the document looked legitimate, possibly due to them taking a template document from an actual agent.

Even the rental price quoted was realistic.

The initial price quoted was S$3,000 for a one-bedroom condo unit, which is slightly less than the lowest price cited in Property Guru, but not ludicrously cheap enough to raise a red flag.

However, perhaps the most concerning part of this potential scam was the showing of the flat itself.

While Ron was not there, the entire showing took over 30 minutes.

They also went through this gate with a card.

So, whoever this supposed agent was knew which unit would be empty for at least 30 minutes, had access to that unit, and had the means to obtain an access card to the condo itself.

The condo appears to be the one the purported agent was confident in showing as well.

The quick pivoting from the Redhill unit was then followed by an even quicker dismissal of another unit Rachel was interested in.

Also interestingly, even after the purported scam was wrapped up, Ron kept asking Rachel if she wanted a spare card.

Was this just further trolling? Or could this screenshot then have been used to procure more access cards?

Mothership has reached out to Queens Peak condominium, and will update the article if they get back to us.

Beware

Responding to queries from Mothership, Eddie Lim, Chief Agency Officer of PropNex Realty, said they had received reports of scammers "impersonating legitimate salespersons through phone calls, emails, and social media platforms".

Sometimes, these scammers even used "email addresses and social media profiles designed to resemble official PropNex communication channels".

Lim urged the public to exercise caution if they are unable to verify the agent's identity.

"We urge the public to exercise caution and refrain from engaging with anyone claiming to represent PropNex if their identity cannot be verified.

Do not transfer any money or share personal details without first confirming the agent’s credentials via the Council for Estate Agencies (CEA) Public Register."

The salesperson's name, CEA registration number, and photo are available and freely accessible on public websites. Lim said consumers may wish to search using the number that contacted them.

While the possibly fake agent's registration number checked out, a search for the number he used to contact Rachel turned up no results.

He strongly advised those affected to "lodge a police report to facilitate investigations", which is exactly what Rachel did.

Responding to queries from Mothership, the police confirmed that a report had been lodged, and investigations are ongoing.

This is an essential step to helping a bank handle scam cases as well.

Responding to queries from Mothership, The Bank of China said that generally, upon receiving a request from the police saying that a customer's account may be implicated in a scam-related case, they will take "immediate and appropriate action" in accordance with applicable laws and regulatory requirements.

"This may include promptly placing a freeze on the relevant account to prevent further movement of suspected funds and providing full cooperation and assistance to the SPF in the course of their investigation."

They also assured customers that the Bank remains fully committed to supporting national efforts in combating scams and safeguarding the integrity of the financial system.

Listings by Ron, as well as his WhatsApp account, appear to have been taken down.

Multiple calls to the number went unanswered.

Images courtesy of Rachel