Posted by Online classifieds recognised as the most supportive online marketplace to collaborate with the Singapore Police Force’s Anti-Scam Centre
Singapore, 26 August 2020 – Carousell, one of the world’s largest and fastest growing classifieds, today announced that it achieved a fraud rate of 0.036% over the past three months, which means that only approximately 3 in every 10,000 transactions on Carousell were fraudulent. Carousell also reduced its overall share in the percentage of all e-commerce scams, according to the Singapore Police Force’s latest report. This decline in fraud was achieved through Carousell’s sustained investment in marketplace safety and strong partnership with the authorities—Carousell has been recognised by the Singapore Police Force as the most supportive online marketplace to collaborate with its dedicated Anti-Scam Centre to clamp down on fraud in Singapore.
Carousell saw a spike in fraudulent activity in February due to the pandemic and took quick action against bad actors while also addressing the influx of opportunistic behaviour. In order to ensure that all listings for COVID-19 related items, such as masks and sanitisers were priced fairly, Carousell’s team of dedicated moderators removed inflated listings and suspended users where necessary. Users were also encouraged to report suspicious listings and even with community flags more than doubling from Q1 to Q2, 100% of the reports were reviewed within 24 hours, with more than half of all reports attended to within an hour. Carousell also invested significantly in improving its tech capabilities. Since the start of the year, it has almost doubled the number of engineers dedicated to marketplace safety and improved the detection of scam patterns, with the percentage of suspicious accounts detected and suspended automatically increasing by more than 20%.
Carousell is also in the midst of tightening the account creation process for its users. Having previously streamlined account ownership to a maximum of 2 accounts over the past year, Carousell is currently limiting each user to only one account with tighter verification requirements. This exercise is being carried out to further protect users on the marketplace, as the marketplace found that users with multiple accounts accounted for 20% of total fraudulent users. Users who request for an additional account to differentiate between their personal and business account will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. Carousell is currently in the midst of notifying affected users.
As a community-focused marketplace, education on safety tips and best practices is a key piece to ensuring that users transact safely on our platform. Carousell strongly encourages users to opt for Carousell Protection, previously known as CarouPay, its trusted escrow payment solution, which provides assurance to users by holding payment until a transaction is verified successful by both buyer and seller. During the COVID-19 period, it was mandatory for listings in selected high-risk categories, including masks and electronics, to be Carousell Protection enabled.
To strengthen safety messaging, Carousell works closely with the Singapore Police Force to endorse our messages whenever possible. To ensure that users can easily access these safety tips, Carousell ensures that they are always visible in easily digestible formats at every user touchpoint, from banners to pop-up notifications, and even prompts that appear in direct messages to users.
Carousell is focused on bringing greater value, trust and convenience to the lives of consumers. Trust and safety continues to be a top priority and Carousell will continue with its dedicated efforts at building a safe and conducive environment for people to sell and buy online.
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About Carousell
Carousell is a classifieds marketplace that makes selling as easy as taking a photo, buying as simple as chatting. Launched in August 2012, Carousell began in Singapore and now has a presence in eight markets across Asia. With over 250 million listings, we are one of the world’s largest and fastest growing marketplaces in Southeast Asia, Taiwan and Hong Kong, and are backed by Telenor Group, Rakuten Ventures, Sequoia India and Naspers. The Carousell marketplace has a diverse range of products across a variety of categories, including cars, lifestyle, gadgets and fashion accessories. Download the app for iOS or Android, and visit www.carousell.com for more information.