Resident in S’pore pays for cash-on-delivery parcel bearing mother’s information, turns out nobody ordered it

Netizen shares experience with new type of parcel scam in Singapore

A new type of parcel scam has been reported in Singapore.

On Thursday (12 Dec), a victim of the scam took to Reddit to share their experience with a bizarre delivery that turned out to be a scam.

The victim had paid for a parcel that listed their mother as the receiver when in fact, no such delivery was ordered.

Cash-on-delivery scam

Prior to the delivery, the victim’s mother had received a message from Ninja Van about a scheduled delivery. Thinking it was a scam, she deleted the messages and blocked the number.

Nonetheless, the courier showed up at the stated time, when the victim was the only one at home.

Unaware that this might be a scam, the victim checked the package, which appeared unsuspicious as it had all of their mother’s details accurately stated as the recipient.

This included her name, address, and phone number.

The courier then informed the victim the package was a cash-on-delivery parcel, which requires recipients to make payments for the items when the delivery is made rather than in advance.

Since the victim did not suspect a scam and the required sum was not high, they made the payment through PayNow and kept the package.

However, when their mother returned home later in the day, she said nobody ordered any deliveries.

That was when the victim took a closer look and noticed multiple labels on the parcel, along with the word “Scammer” handwritten on it.

When they opened the package to check the contents, they found three plain T-shirts inside.

According to the Reddit post, the victim has since reached out to Ninja Van for assistance.

Netizens share their experiences

Responding to the post, many netizens came forward with their own brushes with niche scam tactics.

One brought up another type of delivery scam, where scammers would impersonate couriers and leave behind a fake note of a failed delivery attempt. A QR code will be provided to the recipients to collect the “parcel”.

QR codes can direct users to phishing websites where their passwords can be stolen, or where malicious software may be downloaded onto their devices.

Others encouraged the victim to make a police report so that authorities could keep track of this scam, which is relatively new.

One netizen explained that since the payment was made digitally through PayNow, they may also be able to trace the flow of the money.

MS News has reached out to both the victim and Ninja Van for further comments.

Also read: Elderly woman loses S$1.2M to scammers who posed as bank & police officers

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Featured image adapted from u/gupppies on Reddit.