Man pays delivery guy $50 for parcel he thought a family member ordered, turns out to be a scam
A Punggol resident paid a delivery guy $50 for a parcel he thought someone in his family had ordered.
Stomper Lainey said it turned out to be a scam.
"My mother buys things online and pays via cash on delivery," explained the Stomper.
"The delivery guy came on Sept 25 and passed my dad a parcel which he paid $50 for. He passed the parcel to my mother who informed him that she didn't order anything.
"The name on the parcel was my sister's. They checked with her. She also didn't order anything. They opened the parcel and it was a T-shirt."
But the mystery didn't end there.
The Stomper continued: "They called the delivery person as he texted my mother that he delivered the parcel. Which is weird.
"He claimed he didn't know anything. I sent messages to J&T Express via their website. No reply.
"I pulled the sticker on the parcel and it revealed that the parcel was sent to another unit. It was rejected. So they pasted another sticker. Next scam victim, I guess. They're preying on the elderly."
The Stomper wondered: "Is the delivery company liable?"
J&T Express is aware of the cash-on-delivery (COD) scam and has a public advisory on its website.
The advisory explained that scammers would send their parcels to a freight-forwarding company, who would then consolidate the parcels from various suppliers and send them to logistics company like J&T Express to handle their last-mile deliveries.
"J&T Express then sends these parcels to your doorstep and collects cash on delivery on behalf of the freight forwarders," said the advisory.
Once cash is collected, the cash is remitted to the forwarders who then remit the cash to the senders of the parcel.
"As such, we do not have direct contact with these scammers," said J&T Express.
"In order to prevent these scams from taking place, J&T Express constantly work closely with freight forwarders and our partners to identify and blacklist scammers from our services."
To protect yourself from COD scams, J&T Express advised:
- If you encounter a suspicious delivery and/or payment request, reject immediately and report the delivery details to cs.sg@jtexpress.sg.
- If others are helping you to receive a parcel that requires COD, let them know what it is, when to expect it and how much to pay.
- Always check the item description and delivery details. If they look suspicious, reject it!
