Rental scams in Singapore: how fake property agent listings work

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Kooky

Builder of Shaka, the payment router that pays every agent their commission on closing date.

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A rental listing in Singapore can look complete and still be false. It may carry the name of a real property agent, a real registration number, a photograph of an agent's card and a video tour of a real home. The Council for Estate Agencies (CEA), which regulates the trade, says scammers post fake property listings online and impersonate registered agents with exactly these borrowed credentials. The one thing they cannot borrow is the agent's registered phone number, and most of the protection the official sources describe is built on that single weakness.

This guide sets out how the fraud works as CEA and the Singapore Police Force describe it, the figures the police have published, the cases the regulator has made public, the warning signs it lists and the checks both bodies recommend to anyone looking for a room, a flat or a condominium unit to rent. It also covers the rules on who may be paid what in a rental, because the scam depends on a tenant believing that an agent can take a deposit. Every safeguard here is reported as the sources give it. What a particular tenant or landlord should do in a particular case depends on the facts of that case.

Singapore Police Force advisory of 2 February 2024, covering July 2023 to January 2024; Council for Estate Agencies guidance on rental scams.

How a fake listing is put together

The starting point is an advertisement. According to the police advisory of 2 February 2024, the listings appear on Facebook, on Carousell and on rental advertisement sites, and most of the victims it counted had answered a listing on Facebook. CEA describes the same pattern in broader words: fake listings on advertising sites and online platforms.

The listing gives a contact number, and the conversation then moves to WhatsApp. This is the decisive detail. The police say the number in the listing is different from the number the real agent has registered with CEA. Everything else in the listing may belong to a genuine professional who knows nothing about it.

To look credible, the person behind the listing sends supporting material. The police list photographs of agent passes and business cards, along with photographs, videos or virtual tours of the property. CEA adds that the stolen credentials include CEA registration numbers. In one case the regulator published, the material went further and included a prepared Letter of Intent, the document a prospective tenant normally signs to show a serious offer.

None of these items proves anything on its own. A registration number is public: CEA says each registered agent has a unique number, and gives R123456A as the example of its format. A card can be photographed, and a video of a home can be copied from a genuine advertisement. The fraud works by assembling true details around one false phone number.

What the police have counted

The most detailed loss figures in the official sources come from the police advisory of 2 February 2024 and cover the seven months from July 2023 to January 2024. The police gave two sets of figures.

For rental scams in which the scammer impersonates a CEA-registered agent, the advisory counted at least 389 victims and losses of at least S$2.4 million. For the method that uses a so-called personal assistant, which it introduces as occurring in some cases, it counted at least 144 victims and at least S$917,000. The advisory does not say in so many words whether the 144 are included in the 389. Its wording suggests they are, so this guide does not add the two sets together.

Both figures are floors, since the police wrote "at least" before each one. With that limit in mind, plain arithmetic on the published numbers gives a sense of scale: S$2.4 million divided by 389 victims is about S$6,170 per victim, and S$917,000 divided by 144 is about S$6,370. These averages are calculations made for this guide, not police statistics, and they say nothing about how the losses were spread between victims.

The period matters too. A later police advisory, dated 21 November 2024, counts reports instead of victims: more than 430 reports lodged from January to October 2024, with losses of at least S$2.7 million. It gives no separate figure for the personal assistant method. Neither advisory describes 2026. What is current is the regulator's guidance: CEA's page on rental scams was last updated on 25 June 2026 and describes a newer variation of the fraud, covered below.

The deposit-before-viewing version

The police set out the first version as a sequence. A person looking for a home answers a listing and contacts the number shown, usually on WhatsApp. The person at the other end presents as a registered agent and sends the photographs and cards described above.

The turning point comes when the prospective tenant asks to see the home. According to the police, the scammer then claims that demand for the unit is high and presses for a deposit to secure it. CEA describes the same pressure as a demand to pay in order to secure a viewing or the rental itself.

After payment, one of two things happens. The police say victims find out they have been deceived either when the scammer stops responding or when they reach the real agent whose identity was used. That agent, as one of CEA's published cases shows, may be unaware that the listing exists.

The request itself is the tell. CEA states that no payment is needed to secure a viewing or a rental, and the police state that property agents may not demand or collect payment to view or rent a property. A deposit asked for before a viewing is therefore not an unusual business practice that happens to be risky; according to both bodies, it is something a registered agent is not allowed to ask for at all.

The personal assistant version

The second version removes the most obvious warning sign, because a viewing does take place. The police advisory describes three stages.

The agent whose name is on the listing never appears. This is why the police advise viewing a property in person and confirming that the person present is the CEA-registered agent, not an unqualified assistant. The advisory also notes that, under CEA's practice guidelines, agents must meet tenants face to face to verify their identity for all residential rental transactions. A rental in which the named agent is never met in person sits outside that practice.

This version also costs the victim something besides money. Personal particulars are handed over for a tenancy agreement that is not genuine. The sources consulted do not say what becomes of those details, so this guide makes no claim about it; the police advice on securing accounts, set out in the last section, is given in the same advisory.

Three cases the regulator has published

CEA illustrates its guidance with three anonymised cases. They are worth reading closely because each one failed at a different point, and each shows a check that would have exposed it.

In the first case, the person on WhatsApp said they were in Malaysia and asked for the deposit before any viewing. The prospective tenant alerted CEA, which established that the listing had not been posted by the registered agent and that the number was not the agent's. CEA told her to stop communicating, and a police report was lodged. No payment is mentioned in the regulator's account.

The second case shows how far the deception can go. The scammer sent an image of an agent's Estate Agents card, prepared a Letter of Intent, and promised a viewing and the signing of the tenancy the next day. The prospective tenant searched the number on the CEA Public Register and found nothing. When he raised this, the scammer called him from a spoofed number that began with the Singapore prefix and matched the real agent's. He paid part of the sum, then rang the registered number himself. The real agent answered, unaware of any of it.

The third case is the personal assistant version. The advertiser said the first property was no longer available, offered another condominium unit and arranged a viewing with his assistant. Rental agreements arrived over WhatsApp, and the deposit went to someone claiming to be the landlord. The further demand for money came afterwards. The tenant then contacted the real agent on the CEA-registered number and confirmed the fraud.

A worked example shows what such requests amount to. Assume, purely for illustration, a flat advertised at S$3,200 a month. A two-month deposit is S$6,400, and the first month's rent brings the sum requested to S$9,600, which is three months' rent sent before the door has been opened. On the same basis, a room assumed at S$1,100 a month would mean S$1,100 for a one-month deposit to book a viewing. These rents are assumptions, not market figures.

The warning signs CEA lists

CEA groups the signs of a rental scam into five. They follow the stages of the fraud, and each is taken here from the regulator's guidance.

• Payment before viewing. A request for money in order to see a property or to hold it.
• A number that is not registered with CEA. The regulator's example is a foreign mobile number used for a listing of a home in Singapore.
• Forged or borrowed proof. An image of an agent's card or a Letter of Intent sent to reassure.
• An intermediary who takes the money. A personal assistant, or a landlord nobody has identified, who receives payment.
• More demands after the first payment. A deposit followed by a request for further sums.

One sign is absent from this list on purpose: a poor-looking advertisement. Nothing in the official descriptions suggests that fake listings look amateur. The photographs and videos are of real properties, and the name and registration number belong to a real agent. The signs CEA lists are all about conduct, meaning who is asking, from which number, and for what.

The second case in the table adds a caution about caller identity. A call that appears to come from the agent's registered number was, in that instance, spoofed. The check that worked was an outgoing one: the tenant himself dialled the number shown on the register. CEA's guidance makes the same point in general terms, telling anyone in doubt to contact the agent through the number on the register and not through the number in the listing.

Checking the number on the Public Register

The CEA Public Register is the regulator's public record of registered property agents. Its page on checking an agent, last updated on 4 September 2026, describes the search that matters for rental listings: enter the phone number of the person being dealt with, or the number shown in the advertisement.

There are two possible results, and CEA explains both. If the search leads to an agent's profile page, the number is registered with CEA to that agent. If no profile appears, the number is not registered with CEA, and the regulator says this is likely a scam, even where the agent's name and registration number can be found on the register.

The register also shows more than a number. According to CEA, it lets a consumer see whether the agent's registration is valid, the residential transactions the agent facilitated in the last two years and whom the agent represented in them, industry accolades and awards, and any disciplinary records. It can be used to confirm the details an agent is required to put in an advertisement as well: the agent's name, CEA registration number and phone number, and the agency's name and CEA licence number. CEA notes an exception for newspaper classified advertisements and phone text advertisements, which need only the agent's name, in full or abbreviated, and phone number.

Scammers have adapted to this check. CEA's guidance describes a variation in which the scammer shows a screenshot of an email that appears to come from CEA and says the agent's new number will take 14 days to appear on the Public Register. The regulator's answer is direct: it does not send such emails, and a change to an agent's contact number appears on the register immediately. An explanation for why a number is missing from the register is therefore itself a warning sign.

The police advisory adds a second route for the same check. A listing can be verified by contacting the agent's agency through a trusted source, such as the Public Register or the agency's own official website, instead of the number printed in the advertisement.

Who may be paid, and how

The fraud relies on a tenant accepting that a property agent can collect a deposit. The rules described by CEA point the other way, and they differ slightly by type of property, so they are set out here by source.

On method, CEA's rental scams guidance names crossed cheques and bank transfers as verifiable ways to pay the owner. Its general consumer guidance, last updated on 13 May 2026, encourages clients to pay payees directly through traceable methods and lists bank transfer, PayNow and crossed cheques, as opposed to cash handed to the agent or money sent to the agent's account. The police advisory is narrower on one point: it says deposits and rent should go directly to the landlord's bank account, and warns against paying into an assistant's account or to an unverified PayNow number. Read together, the sources treat the identity of the payee as the issue, more than the payment channel.

The law behind this is regulation 7 of Singapore's Estate Agents (Estate Agency Work) Regulations 2010, in the consolidated version CEA publishes as in force from 1 January 2026. Headed "No holding of transaction monies", it bars an estate agent or salesperson from holding or handling money for or on behalf of any party in two kinds of transaction: the sale or purchase of property in Singapore, and the lease of HDB property. The penalty on conviction is a fine of up to S$10,000, imprisonment of up to six months, or both, with a further fine of up to S$500 for each day a continuing offence goes on after conviction.

Two limits should be noted. First, the regulation as read for this guide covers leases of HDB property and does not extend to leases of other property, so for a private condominium the basis is the guidance of CEA and the police quoted above, not regulation 7. Second, the regulation has exceptions: an agent may deliver a crossed account payee cheque or cashier's order made out to another party to the transaction, and may receive payment or reimbursement for managing, repairing or renovating a property under a written contract or authorisation. CEA's consumer guidance adds that, for HDB rentals, the money agents cannot handle is the rental deposit and the monthly rent, and that tenants should pay the HDB owner directly. It also says commission is due once the transaction is completed, which is a different moment from a request made before a viewing.

Extra checks before renting an HDB flat

For public housing, CEA publishes a checklist for the tenant, or the tenant's property agent, to work through before a tenancy is signed. The version consulted is version 1.1, updated on 18 November 2020. Three of its points bear directly on fraud.

The first is the landlord's name: the checklist says to confirm it. The second is ownership of the flat, which the checklist says can be confirmed through INLIS, the land information service of the Singapore Land Authority. The third is HDB's confirmation that the owners are allowed to rent out the flat.

These checks address the part of the fraud the register cannot reach. The Public Register establishes whether the person on the phone is a registered agent. It does not establish that the person presented as the landlord owns the home. In the third case CEA published, the deposit went to someone claiming to be the landlord, and that claim was the false one. The checklist was written for HDB flats, and this guide does not extend it to private property, where the sources consulted give only the general advice to pay the owner directly.

What registered agents and landlords should know

An impersonated agent is also harmed by the fraud. In the second of CEA's three cases, the real agent learned of it only when the victim telephoned the registered number. The rules the sources describe are the ones that make a genuine agent easy to tell apart.

The advertising requirements are the first. CEA says an agent's advertisement must show the agent's name, registration number and phone number, with the agency's name and licence number, and that the register can be used to confirm them. According to the consolidated regulations, the Code of Ethics also requires agents to identify themselves correctly and clearly in advertisements, to obtain the client's agreement before advertising a property, and to remove an advertisement once the property is no longer available. For a landlord, this means a listing for the home should exist only with the landlord's consent.

The card is the second. Regulation 9 of the same regulations requires salespersons to display their estate agent card whenever they carry out estate agency work, to show it to anyone who reasonably asks, and to let that person record the information on it. A card produced in person at a viewing is a different thing from an image of a card sent over WhatsApp, which is the form CEA lists among its warning signs.

The third is the face-to-face meeting. The practice the police cite, under which agents meet tenants in person to verify identity for residential rentals, works in both directions: the tenant also sees the agent. CEA's consumer guidance says in addition that carrying out estate agency work without a valid registration is an offence. What penalties apply to the scammers themselves is not stated in the sources read for this guide.

Where to check and where to report

CEA directs anyone who is unsure whether something is a scam to the ScamShield Helpline on 1799, which it describes as operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It also points to the ScamShield app, the ScamShield website and the ScamShield Alert channels on WhatsApp and Telegram, and to the Singapore Police Force for the latest advisories on rental scams.

The police advisory of 2 February 2024 listed its own contacts: the Anti-Scam Helpline on 1800-722-6688, the Police Hotline on 1800-255-0000 and an online form for submitting information to the police. Those are the numbers as published on that date. The police advisory of 21 November 2024 no longer lists 1800-722-6688: it gives the ScamShield Helpline on 1799 and the Police Hotline on 1800-255-0000, so 1799 is the contact both the police and the regulator's current page give.

The same advisory organises its general advice under three words. Under "add", it recommends installing the ScamShield app, enabling two-factor or multi-factor authentication on bank, social media, messaging and Singpass accounts, and setting transaction limits for internet banking, including PayNow. Under "check", it recommends verifying through official sources and not relying on a listing or on assurances given over WhatsApp. Under "tell", it recommends informing the authorities, family and friends, and reporting a fraudulent listing to the platform on which it appeared.

CEA closes its guidance with a reminder that reaches beyond rentals. Government officials, it says, will never ask a member of the public to transfer money, to disclose bank log-in details, to install mobile apps from unofficial app stores, or to have a call transferred to the police.

Kooky, from Shaka

Kooky edits Agents Estate and builds Shaka, the payment router he made for real estate professionals. One payment comes in, and every agent, agency and party in the deal receives their signed share on closing date.

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