SINGAPORE: The online shopping platform Carousell will implement more safeguards targeted at preventing the misuse of verified accounts for scams by Jan 31 next year, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said on Friday (Nov 21).
Investigations by the Singapore Police Force found that scammers have increasingly used Singpass-verified Carousell accounts to carry out scams.
They did so by phishing login details to take over verified accounts, paying users to hand over their accounts, or using stolen or purchased Singpass credentials to verify new accounts.
To address this, MHA said, Carousell has committed to improving authentication processes to prevent malicious takeovers, such as offering more secure login options like passkeys and biometric logins.
It has also committed to suspending accounts detected to have been relinquished to scammers and blacklisting Singpass credentials previously used to verify scam accounts from verifying new ones.
This comes after Carousell completed its user verification pilot from July 2024 to June 2025.
Under the E-Commerce Code of the Online Criminal Harms Act (OCHA), Carousell is required to verify users who advertise or post about the sales of goods or services against government-issued records.
The platform conducted enhanced verification on selected high-risk sellers and advertisers between Jul 1 and Dec 31 last year.
On Mar 10, 2025, MHA extended the assessment period of Carousell’s user verification pilot for six months until Jun 30.
“MHA had highlighted that if the number of e-commerce scams on Carousell did not drop significantly over the pilot, MHA would require Carousell to verify the identities of all sellers,” it said.
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Investigations by the Singapore Police Force found that scammers have increasingly used Singpass-verified Carousell accounts to carry out scams.
They did so by phishing login details to take over verified accounts, paying users to hand over their accounts, or using stolen or purchased Singpass credentials to verify new accounts.
To address this, MHA said, Carousell has committed to improving authentication processes to prevent malicious takeovers, such as offering more secure login options like passkeys and biometric logins.
It has also committed to suspending accounts detected to have been relinquished to scammers and blacklisting Singpass credentials previously used to verify scam accounts from verifying new ones.
This comes after Carousell completed its user verification pilot from July 2024 to June 2025.
Under the E-Commerce Code of the Online Criminal Harms Act (OCHA), Carousell is required to verify users who advertise or post about the sales of goods or services against government-issued records.
The platform conducted enhanced verification on selected high-risk sellers and advertisers between Jul 1 and Dec 31 last year.
On Mar 10, 2025, MHA extended the assessment period of Carousell’s user verification pilot for six months until Jun 30.
“MHA had highlighted that if the number of e-commerce scams on Carousell did not drop significantly over the pilot, MHA would require Carousell to verify the identities of all sellers,” it said.
Continue reading...