She hoped to earn $20 online but got scammed of $1,300

They were so close they called themselves "partners in crime", said Miss Cindy Tan's friend Ng Jing Ting.

Ironically, the 19-year-olds have become victims of crime instead, scammed by the same person.

Miss Ng was billed an extra $200 for her mobile line after doing the same "trial" - on Miss Tan's recommendation.

Miss Ng had started the "trial" immediately after Miss Tan ended hers, but was told by Miss Tan shortly after to stop all contact with the scammer when she realised something was wrong.

Miss Ng, who is also waiting to enter university in August, said: "I trusted the scammer as Cindy had done the 'trial' and the scammer had a decent WhatsApp profile photo.

"When I found out from Cindy that it was a scam, I was quite sad and wished I had been more discerning."

LESSON

Miss Ng said her parents were calm when told of the scam and asked her to treat it as a lesson.

She tried appealing to Singtel to waive the bill, but was told it was not possible as the online credits had already been purchased and redeemed by the scammer.

Her family decided not to file a police report as the amount was small compared to the $1,363 that Miss Tan was scammed of, said Miss Ng who is still close friends with Miss Tan.

"I don't blame her for this as it was still my fault for believing the scammer," said Miss Ng.

"I now know that we should work hard for money instead of trying to make a quick buck. Unfortunately, I had to learn this the hard way."

In a straw poll of 500 upper secondary students earlier this year, one in four said they had fallen prey to online scams.

And among them, about one in three was scammed of money. Other scams included online deals where the buyer or seller did not turn up.

The poll was conducted by Touch Cyber Wellness, a voluntary welfare group that teaches Internet safety.

Its manager, Mr Chong Ee Jay, told The New Paper yesterday that it is "pretty common" for youth to fall prey to online scams, since they often use the Internet.

He said: "Many scam victims know at the back of their mind that something is wrong, but still proceed because of the thrill and temptation of fast money."

Mr Chong added that while it is natural for parents to want to reprimand the victims, they should also provide practical support such as filing a police report or adapting measures to safeguard their safety online and offline.

"Scam victims can experience self-blame and in severe cases, depression," he said.

"If victims feel that their parents are not on their side, they might resort to solving the matter themselves by borrowing money from loan sharks, which makes things worse.

"Parents should practise empathy when dealing with such cases."

As scams today are often complex and even "ingenious", Mr Chong said cyber-wellness programmes in schools should keep up with the times and parents should also talk to their children about it.

Youth themselves have to be discerning about what they see online, he added.

Legitimate job advertisements, for example, often contain professional language, including proper grammar, and list a registered company.

ALARM

Mr David Maciejak, head of security software firm Fortinet's FortiGuard Lion research and development team in Asia-Pacific, said that requests for password or credit card information should set off alarm bells.

When money is involved, it is always better to call the company to verify the advertisement.

He said: "Just as you should not give your house keys to a stranger, you should never share your password, bank account details or PINs with others."

Users who come across scam ads should also report them to the website they are posted on.

"Gumtree provides a 'report scams or fraud' link in its page footer. This means it's not the first time this has happened," said Mr Maciejak.

While scams have existed for ages, technology is used to a greater degree in recent times, he added.

For example, online credit systems, such as the one in Miss Cindy Tan's case, use security measures that are based on what only the user would know, such as password, bank card details or a PIN.

But even if the user is using an authentication token that generates a one-time password (OTP), malware can forward the OTP to an attacker via SMS.

To overcome this, some mobile apps take advantage of smartphone functions such as banking apps that require fingerprint verification, he said.

3,759

Number of online crime cases last year including e-commerce and credit-for-sex. The number of cases in 2014 was 1,929.

1,203

Number of credit-for-sex cases last year - a 1,723-per cent jump from 2014.

2,173

Number of cases of cheating involving e-commerce last year - a 30.5-per cent rise from 2014.

$1.76m

Amount involved in 2,173 e-commerce cheating cases last year.

$74,000

The largest amount lost in a credit-for-sex scam last year.

72

Number of people arrested in a three-day operation last month for suspected involvement in 183 online scam cases involving a total of $242,000.

For more information on scams, go to scamalert.sg

A 19-year-old man was arrested in January for suspected involvement in an online scam that cheated victims of an estimated $14,000.

Between last October and January this year, multiple police reports were made, involving more than 25 victims who purportedly were cheated in responding to job offers online.

The police established that the victims had responded to the man's job offer and had given him their mobile phone numbers.

Shortly after, they would receive a text message requiring their acknowledgement for the purchase of online gaming credits.

The victims would be asked to acknowledge the text message and then forward a subsequent confirmation text message, which included a PIN code, to the suspect.

The man would then become uncontactable.

It was believed that he sold the game credits using the PIN codes.

The victims, who were initially assured by the suspect that they would not be charged, were notified of the game credit charges through their phone bills.