My husband was liaising with a property agent from ERA called “Eddy” through Whatsapp with regards to renting a property at 208a and 208b Clementi gateway.

My husband got eddy’s contact number through this website called directhome.com.sg. However, eddy informed me that both units were fully rented out. My husband then asked for my assistance to contact eddy to rent a unit at 320 Clementi Avenue 4.

On 07/06/2022 at around 1221h7s while I was at home., eddy replied to my WhatsApp message that sent to him on 06/06/2022 with enquiries to rent the above-mentioned property.

Eddy then explain to me what the procedure and the payment arrangement were. Eddy then asked me for my ic photo which I gave. Subsequently, eddy asked me to make a 2-month deposit with 1 month of security amounting to sgd$5100/-. I did as was told and on 07/06/2022 at 1850hrs while I was at home, I transferred sgd$5100/- from my DBS’savings to Chua T te Ping uob??? through i-banking.

After the payment eddy sent me an email with the tenancy agreement, but the location was wrong. Eddie then sent me another agreement with the correct address. Eddy then explained to me i had to make another payment for stamp duty amounting to sgd$1632.00/-. I felt suspicious and did not make the payment.

On 15/06/2022, I then checked with my cousin who was a property agent. She informed me that it might be a scam and gave eddy contact number which was different than the contact number that I contacted with.

The real Eddy then informed me that he never dealt with me before and he had multiple messages from other people with similar incident.In order to verify if the real estate agent is who they claimed to be, check the agent’s contact number against this online Register by CEA: https://www.cea.gov.sg/aceas/public-register/sales/1. The contact number should match the one registered with CEA. If it isn’t, please do not deal with the agent.Always pay the rent directly to the landlord.