In its mid-year crime brief for January to June, the Singapore Police Force reported that scams involving e-commerce increased by 213 cases over the same period last year.
The police noted that two scams - multiple payment online purchase scam and Paypal email scam - registered significant increases.
Internet love scams also increased but cyber extortion forms the majority of the increase in attempted extortion and extortion cases.
The total losses from online scams increased from at least S$22,000 ($17,700) from January-June 2013 to at least S$57,000 ($45,800) from January-June 2014.
The police force has already expanded its outreach efforts to reach out to the online community using digital advertorials, articles and videos posted on various online networks such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and other popular websites.
It also created a microsite to educate the public on various types of scams. This microsite is constantly updated to include new scams that emerge.
As the majority of the perpetrators of such scams are overseas and the monies are usually transferred to overseas bank accounts, Police will continue to share available information with our foreign counterparts to crack down on such activities.
“The latest statistics show a distinct shift to crimes being perpetrated online. The most effective way to combat this is through crime prevention. In addition to our public education efforts, we will be studying the crime patterns to see how we can work with online platforms and financial institutions to remind users about online scams at the most opportune moments of a transaction,” said Director of Commercial Affairs Department Tan Boon Gi.