SINGAPORE — The police have received more than 98 reports of e-commerce scams involving the sale of concert and event tickets here in the first four months of the year.

In an advisory issued on Monday (May 27), they are reminding the public to exercise more caution when buying tickets online.

This is especially since there is a series of concerts by popular artistes and boybands coming up over the next few months here, including Taiwanese pop star Jay Chou, Singapore singer JJ Lin, Canadian singer-songwriter Shawn Mendes and Taiwanese boyband 5566. There will also be the International Champions Cup held at the National Stadium in July, where English Premier League giants Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur will face Italian rivals Inter and Juventus in two matches.

The police said that for the 98 cases, the victims of the reported scams either did not receive the tickets, or received invalid tickets after their payments were made.

They are advising potential buyers to be wary of online advertisements of concert or show tickets going at cheap prices that “sound too good to be true”.

Buyers should also check the reviews of the sellers before getting tickets from them, and to avoid making advance payments or deposits to strangers.

Buyers should be aware that fraudulent sellers may use a Singapore bank account or provide a copy of an identification card or driver's licence to try and make their scams seem more believable, but these may not really belong to the sellers.

Where possible, it is recommended that event-goers buy tickets from authorised sellers, because duplicated second-hand tickets may be invalid for entry.

For more scam-related advice, the public may call the anti-scam hotline at 1800-722-6688 or visit www.scamalert.sg.

Members of the public may also call the police helpline at 1800-255-0000 to provide information on such scams, or submit it online at www.police.gov.sg/iwitness.