How to spot a home cleaning scam in Singapore

A cleaning scam usually looks like an ordinary booking until money moves. The pattern is an ad or a chat offering an unusually low price or a slot that "must be confirmed today", followed by a request to pay a deposit to a person, to pay through a link that is not the company's own, or to share a code or card details in the chat. A genuine service takes payment through its own business payment page or invoice and never needs your one-time password.

This guide covers the patterns to watch for, the checks worth making before you pay anyone, and what to do if something has already gone wrong.

The patterns to watch for

A deposit to a personal account

The scammer asks for a deposit, a "booking fee" or full payment upfront by bank transfer or PayNow to an individual's name or phone number. Once paid, the cleaner never arrives and the account stops replying. ScamShield's guidance on online deals names this directly: be suspicious when a seller asks you to pay them directly instead of through a secure payment option.

Too cheap, too urgent

An hourly rate far below everyone else's, a "promo" that ends tonight, or only one slot left. ScamShield lists an attractive price for a limited time as a red flag. Pressure to decide quickly is there to stop you checking.

Copied or fake pages

A social media page or ad using a real company's name, logo or photos, but a different phone number. Scammers copy legitimate businesses because their reviews and branding do the persuading. The contact number on the business's own website is the one to use.

Requests for codes and card details

A message asks you to read back a code sent to your phone, to "verify" your card by typing its number into the chat, or to download an app from a link. ScamShield's advice is plain: do not share passwords, banking details or card details with anyone over the phone or online, and treat any request for an OTP as a warning sign.

Payment links that are not the business's

A link that opens a payment page on an unfamiliar web address, or asks you to pay through an app you have never heard of. ScamShield flags requests to pay through third-party links sent by text message.

Checks to make before you pay

1. Find the registered business. Ask for the company's name or its Unique Entity Number (UEN) and search it on ACRA's Bizfile. The free search shows whether the registration is live and the registered address, and ACRA suggests also checking how long the business has been registered and who runs it.
2. Look at how payment is taken. A real service sends you to its own payment page or issues an invoice in the business's name. If you are asked to pay by PayNow, check that the name shown before you confirm is the business you booked, not a person.
3. Use the official channel. Contact the business through the number or chat link on its own website, not a number from a comment, a forwarded message or an ad you cannot trace.
4. Ask who will come. A legitimate service can tell you which company employs the cleaner. If a migrant worker will clean your home, that company should be allowed to deploy them, for example under MOM's Household Services Scheme.
5. Take your time. A real service will still be there tomorrow. If someone will not let you check, stop.

Booking over WhatsApp is normal in Singapore and is not a warning sign in itself. The difference is what happens at the payment step: a genuine business sends a link to its own website and never asks for your card number in the chat. Our guide to booking a cleaner on WhatsApp walks through what a normal booking looks like.

Where to check if you are not sure

ScamShield is Singapore's official portal for scam awareness and protection. Two of its tools are useful before you pay:

• The ScamShield Helpline, 1799. It is open 24/7 and you can call it to check whether something is a scam. From overseas, the number is +65 6869 1799. The helpline cannot make police reports for you.
• The ScamShield app. You can use it to check whether a suspicious number, message or link is a scam before you act.

If you have already paid

ScamShield's advice for anyone who has been scammed is to act immediately, in this order:

1. Call your bank. If your account or card has been compromised, the bank can act quickly to prevent further losses.
2. Make a police report. You can file one online through the Singapore Police Force's e-services, or in person at a Neighbourhood Police Centre or Neighbourhood Police Post. The police hotline is 1800-255-0000.
3. Secure your accounts. If an email or social media account was compromised, change the password, turn on two-factor authentication and warn your contacts.
4. Report the page or account. Tell the platform where you found the ad, with screenshots, so it can act against the account.

Keep the chat, the payment receipt and the account details. The full steps are on ScamShield's page for people who have been scammed.

How HomeMaster takes payment

So you know what normal looks like with us: customers pay on our own payment page on homemaster.co, by the link we send. We never ask for a bank transfer to a person, and we never ask you to type card details into a chat. Card or Google Pay work for every booking, and one-time bookings can also be paid by PayNow or Apple Pay. There is no booking fee and no travel fee, and any cancellation fee is paid by a payment link, never charged silently to a saved card.

When you book on our website, we confirm your phone number with a 6-digit code sent on WhatsApp. That code is only ever entered on our booking page, by you or by an AI assistant you have asked to book for you, and we will never ask you to send it to us in a chat. If anyone claiming to be HomeMaster asks you to pay any other way, do not pay, and check with Helen, our AI assistant on WhatsApp, first.

Our rates are published, GST included, on our home cleaning page and in our cleaning price guide, so a quote that looks nothing like them is worth questioning.