The Facebook page of the Ministry of Defence, Singapore (MINDEF), has warned of a new variety of scam — the “bulk order” scam — in which impostors pretending to be Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) personnel place large orders at retail outlets.
In its post on Sunday, MINDEF said: “The SAF has observed a number of allegedly fraudulent bulk orders made by individuals claiming to be SAF personnel. The SAF takes a serious view of this. For the 7 cases that we are aware of, we have not found any evidence that these individuals are affliated with the SAF, and have made reports to the Police on them.”
MINDEF urged the public, including businesses, “to remain vigilant and report any suspicious activity to the Police”.
The Facebook post by MINDEF redirected people to a recent Singapore Police Force advisory on: “Fake bulk order scams targeting the renovation, F&B, retail and service industries”.
This advisory, dated July 28, said that the police were alerting the Singapore public “on the re-emergence of a fake bulk order scam variant. Recent cases saw the renovation, F&B, retail and service industries being targeted. Since May 2025, at least 5 cases were reported, with total losses amounting to at least $52,000.”
The police advisory explained: “In this scam variant, scammers would typically pose as teachers or staff from academic institutions in Singapore. Scammers would contact renovation firms, restaurants, retailers, or service-related businesses via phone call or WhatsApp message, pretending to be customers making bulk orders or to make reservations.”
These fake buyers would deliberately request additional items, including specific brands of items that the targeted businesses do not carry. They would also place their fake orders in huge quantities that would be impossible for the targeted businesses to fulfil at short notice.
However, a targeted business would naturally try to keep the customer and not lose the order, which is how the impostor would move in for the kill.
The fake customer would then introduce the targeted business to another person, a fake supplier.
At this point, the targeted business would be persuaded to make a payment to the ‘supplier’, so that the business could fulfil the bulk order for the ‘customer’.
The scam would be revealed when the business owner made the payment, and received nothing from the supplier, and the customer also became uncontactable.
Citing social media posts from a few of the Singapore small businesses thus targeted by the bulk order scammers, a CNA report quoted the bakery Breaditation and the flower business KIKI Florist as having lost SGD 2,000 and SGD 1,000, respectively.
