Teen boy goes door to door in Tampines, tells sob story and tricks family into paying $30 for $8.50 ice cream
Beware of teen boys going door to door telling sob stories to sell ice cream at way above retail price.
Stomper JJ wants to warn others after her family fell for such a ruse on Dec 27 at around 7.20pm.
She recounted: "I was visited by a boy claiming that he was selling ice cream to support his four siblings. His mother would scold if he couldn't sell the ice cream. He kept touching his torn shirt.
"My six-year-old boy was an empathic person and begged my husband to buy the ice-cream to support the boy."
They paid $30 for the ice cream, which the Stomper later found out cost only $8.50.
The Stomper, who lives in Tampines GreenGem, said: "I checked in our estate group chat. It turned out to be a scam.
"Six to seven boys were dispersed throughout the estate to sell ice cream. Some neighbours were visited by a different boy but got the same story.
"They will open the price at $35, then lower it, depending on how hard it is to sell you."
The Stomper went online and found other victims.
One of them posted in the Friends Of Yew Tee Facebook group on May 26, 2025: "It's a known scam, the company exploiting youths to sell ice cream. Be careful as my mom bought two from them when I wasn't home!"
A Redditor posted on Jan 8, 2025: "Anyone encounter ice cream door-to-door sales lately, around Tampines area? A teenage boy rang my door around 10pm and acted for sympathy, saying he had four more ice cream to sell and if he didn't sell it all his mom was going to 'kill' him.
"He crazily hiked up the price for each box was like $30? For a brand called Evergreen ice cream, which, from what I searched afterward, is only below $9?
"My mom ended up buying three boxes out out of sympathy, which in total was $90? He was begging and pleading for us to buy and acted as if he was going to cry. How can they scam people for over $30?"
In October 2023, Stomp reported that a young man had knocked on the door of a Yishun resident at 11pm to sell ice cream.
SFA says...
In response to a Straits Times forum letter in June 2024, a spokesperson for the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) said the door-to-door sale of food or goods to consumers is a form of illegal hawking, which is an offence under the Environmental Public Health Act.
SFA will investigate cases of illegal hawking and take the necessary enforcement actions, added the spokesperson.
Members of the public who come across any illegal hawking activities should report them to SFA via the online feedback form.
