S’pore couple loses S$7,000 in rental scam by a person claiming to be a PropNex agent

Scams are scarily rampant these days and on the rise are property rental scams, with over 380 cases reported between July 2023 and January 2024. 
Married couple JM and Faz, who are both fitness instructors in their mid 30s, are victims of a recent rental scam. Hoping to bring awareness to the situation, JM recounted the experience on September 17 in two Instagram Stories that have gone viral.
Speaking to 8days.sg, JM revealed they were supposed to collect the keys to a condominium unit located at Paya Lebar Road on the evening of September 16. However, upon reaching the place, they found out there were two other couples waiting for their agent, who was an hour late, to facilitate the handover of the unit. 
After speaking to the other couples, JM and Faz realised all of them had been scammed. Their agent went MIA, and they lost a total of S$7.2K in deposit. The other couples also lost at least S$5k each. 
JM and Faz said they found the listing for the unit on Facebook Marketplace, and had only met with the property agent’s assistant during their two viewings.
Despite doing their due diligence to check on their agent’s background, nothing seemed amiss during the process. The agent had the required licence registration number and documents to back up the listing. 
“I’ve been renting for 12 years. We’re not new to renting a house, so we did a thorough check to make sure it was legitimate. We went to PropNex to check his licence number,” JM told 8days.sg. 
JM and Faz believe that the scammer might have been using the profile of an actual PropNex agent named Mike Tay. 
They spoke to “Mike” on phone calls, but only met his “assistant” in person. 
JM explained: “It is not uncommon [to only meet with an agent’s assistant], even our current agent does the same when they have to attend several listings at the same time. We viewed almost 15 units this month, and sometimes we would only meet with the agent’s partner or assistant.”
JM and Faz are parents to a newborn, and their lease at their current place ends end September. Thankfully, their landlord is understanding of their situation and has extended their lease until end October.
“The initial plan was to buy a house,” said JM, who is from the Philippines. “My PR status just got approved, and we just got our HFE (HDB Flat Eligibility) letter so we’re applying for an upcoming BTO. But we still need to rent because that’s going to take time,” said JM
The couple wished to rent a place that was convenient for them to travel to and from work, especially since they are taking turns to take care of their newborn. 
During the process of renting the house, Faz and JM did have a “gut feeling” that something might have been off. 
JM said: “If we ask for something, they were very fast. They were very quick to say, ‘That’s okay’.”
Faz added: “Usually they would have to check with the landlord, but [Mike] agreed within 15 minutes.”
According to JM, the scammers were also very good at playing at one’s emotions.
“We really liked the place, especially for our growing family, and we would save money compared to other listings. They would say we’re too slow to decide, and tell us there were many viewings already. They put you into this kind of situation to rush your decision,” she said. 
“We only have Mike’s WhatsApp photo, and the assistant is a lady who wears a tudung, around 165cm, on the plump side. We searched residential records, and an agent exists with [Mike’s] record. It could be Mike, or someone used his ID to do all this. The only thing we have is the bank account number we transferred to,” said Faz. 
Their current agent also helped in checking Mike’s legitimacy, and was equally shocked at how elaborate the scam was. They suspect the scammer might have purchased a title deed from the SLA site, and doctored it to change the location.
After sharing her experience on Instagram, JM received a message from a stranger who almost fell victim to the same scam, from a listing of the exact same unit. 
“Apparently it’s still ongoing and they’re operating under a different phone number. They’re still talking to her, they told her she’s slow to pay the deposit. She loved the place, but her boyfriend felt like it seemed suspicious, and wanted to check if they were speaking to a real person first. Thankfully, she hadn’t paid the deposit,” said JM. 
She was also contacted by others who almost became victims, one of whom shared that the scammers even had the cheek to pretend to be “offended” when she asked questions about the legitimacy of the listing and his identity. 
JM and Faz have since made a police report about the incident and have also contacted PropNex to get assistance on the case. 
The couple ultimately want to shed light on such rental scams, with JM adding in her post that they should have “issued a cheque instead of bank transfer, insisted on meeting the agent, contacted Propnex” and most importantly “trusted their instincts”. 
“It’s such common practice to pass the deposit to agents who would then pass it to the landlords. It’s all by trust. We’re warned against clicking links to avoid scams, but no one talks about how this is a big market for scams as well,” said Faz. 
“If we cannot get our money back, at least we can create some awareness about it,” added JM.
Photos: JM