Bernard Hiew, a Malaysian actor and content creator, had his family’s portrait used without permission by a couple of property agents in their ad that was run on Facebook.
The photo featured Hiew, his wife and their baby.
The caption identified them as “Shi Xian and Cheryl”, who “met” the agents when they were looking for a new home.
Hiew then took to his Instagram to address the ad, clarifying that he is “not Shi Xian” and that “we didn’t buy no HDB”.
Hiew said that the agents were using his family photo and “lied about it”.
The agents then commented on their ad (after netizens pointed out that the photo didn’t match the story) that the story of “Shi Xian and Cheryl” is actually a “true story” and that it wasn’t made up.
The agents later came out and apologised for using Hiew’s family photo, they said that they didn’t have any photos of their client (but they emphasized that the story was “true”) so they took a family portrait off the internet.
IMages source: @bnardhiew on IG and Eugene & Raina – Property Asset Strategists on Facebook