Beware of requests to pay Additional Buyer’s Stamp Duty (ABSD) or Stamp Duty to secure your rental property. Don’t fall for it!
For the fake stamp certificate scam, you will receive messages (phone calls, social networking sites or emails) from fraudsters claiming to be property agents. You will be instructed to pay Additional Buyer’s Stamp Duty (ABSD) or Stamp Duty in order to get secure your rental property. Other variants of the fake stamp certificate scams lure you to pay make payment by claiming that the ABSD or Stamp Duty will be refunded upon lease expiry of the tenancy term.
What’s legit from IRAS?
- Check that the agent is registered with the Council for Estate Agencies (CEA) by doing a search at the CEA website (https://www.cea.gov.sg/aceas/public-register/sales/1) and verify that the mobile number is correct. Scammers may use a registered agent’s identity but provide a fake mobile number.
- ABSD is not payable for tenancy agreements. Please refer to Verifying the Authenticity of Stamp Certificate (iras.gov.sg) for more information on how to verify the authenticity of stamp certificate.
- Stamp duty is paid to IRAS via GIRO, AXS and PayNow. Don’t hand over your personal data, bank account or credit card details to secure a rental property.
Screenshots of fake stamp certificate scams:
