I was the victim of a type of fraud known as an investment scam. It’s when victims are conned into handing over money to people offering fake, but often very convincing, investments with the promise of big returns.
I was watching videos on YouTube, saw an advert offering the chance to invest in stocks and shares and filled in a form requesting more information.
The next day I got a call from someone who called themselves a customer service agent and paid £250 to start trading. The day after I was called again, this time by someone who described themselves as my account manager and given a username and password for an extremely convincing trading website.
I made this first payment last week and as soon as I made that first terrible step the fraudsters had me.
Then it was a case of them engaging me with more deceit, more lies, promises of bigger returns – which soon turned to promises of getting his growing losses back, and each time tricking him into transferring them more and more money.
By the end of the week i’d been tricked into paying £18,000 and 2 bitcoins – worth more than S$56,000 at today’s exchange rate. Totalling over $100,000
I still can’t mentally recall how I’ve been suckered into this scam, but I will appreciate any help I can get. please I cannot lose my money, I need help fast.
Here are what netizens think:
There is nothing you can do. Your money is gone. You’re going to be getting DMs from people claiming to be “ethical hackers” or “forensic investigators” saying they can get it back, but they can’t. They will just bleed you even more.
You will not be able to get your money back. Ignore people who promise otherwise.
Fake cryptocurrency websites controlled by scammers are becoming more and more common. Sometimes the scam begins with a romance scammer who claims that they can help the victim invest in cryptocurrency. Victims are told to buy cryptocurrency of some kind using a legitimate cryptocurrency exchange, and then they are told to send their cryptocurrency to a website wallet address where it will be invested.
I used to be a Property Agent for a few years. If u work hard, the money is good.
But the thing about own boss, own time, and work-life balance is bull. In order to earn that 6 figure annually, which I did, means I have to work really hard chasing clients like crocodiles.
I work long hours(doing homework, working out a strategy, getting listings, etc) finished work late, reach home late, work on weekends and in the end I didn’t spend much time with my family. Is that what I want? No cos for me money is not everything although it’s important. I am looking for something more fulfilling and wholesome. Ask yourself, what do u want to achieve?
If you think that being your own boss is all rosy, think again as you will be responsible for : Marketing, business strategies, personal training, Medisave, employment & staff training( telemarketers/ PA etc), office rental, business related expenses, the list just goes on.
A property agent is hard work. You will join one of the property agencies but are basically running your own business. You have to do marketing, promotion, sales, etc… It is a ton of effort.
Working as a property agent is no different from working as an insurance agent. It is essentially 9am to 11pm due to viewings and whatnot. If you have free time in the day, chances are you will fail.
Like any business, only the top 5% to 10% of them ever succeed. The rest fail.
It is good money if you succeed. IF.
However, any professional job is good money if you succeed AND you have more job stability.
Property agents are go-getters. You have to have the mindset and temperament for it. “I’m unhaply with 9-5” is not going to cut it.
Once u have decided on which path to take, work hard on it. Good luck buddy.
Here are what netizens think:
No healthcare package, no paid annual leave.
90% failure rate yet so many people still want try.
Hi all, just wanted to let something off my chest. So… I have 4 siblings which are all brothers.( I am a guy btw) The 5 of us are very close since young and we always share things like usage of car, clothes etc.
We are all working adults now and 4 of my brothers can’t find their right one (they are middle age men now). I felt bad for them and asked my wife if she is willing to have S with my brothers and have a child with each of them to boost their self esteem.
In which, she agreed. (With conditions like 100k for each child birth ) She then had S with my oldest brother about 5 years ago. Which I have regretted this decision and really defeated every inch of my soul. I cried very badly outside their room that night. Since then she had Swith my 3 other brothers occasionally. I act like I am okay in front of them. But in fact it was killing me inside, each time they had S.
Today, we each have one child. When I look at my brother’s child, I felt sadness and emptiness in my heart. I start to question myself “what if this child does better than my child”, “what if my wife likes this child better than our child, which cause an impact on our relationship”.
I start to think a lot since the start of the S with my brothers, which really impacted my mental health a lot as I did not mention to them about my feelings as I do not wish to ruin our relationship, both brother and wife.
I started to have depression and have suicidal thoughts after one month my wife had S with my oldest brother. Even though this is transactional, I still felt really bad and felt that my self-worth is worse than a bag full of dirt.
Today, when we go out as a family, me, my 4brothers, wife and 5 children. I felt very insecure and wish to die every day. I do not know what is the point in living already. Btw the children all acknowledge me as the dad. As registered in all their birth cert.
All in all, I do not know why I suggest such a stupid idea. And I really f regret it to the core of my soul.
Please advise how to cope with this… I don’t think I can tahan already
Two former directors of a Singapore-registered gold investment company The Gold Label Pte Ltd (“The Gold Label”), Iseli Rudolf James Maitland (“James”) and How Soo Feng (“How”), were convicted after 29 days of trial on one count of fraudulent trading under Section 340(1) read with Section 340(5) of the Companies Act (“CA”) each.
They were sentenced to three years and 10 months imprisonment on 12 September 2022. A third former director, Wong Kwan Sing (“Wong”), had earlier pleaded guilty to a Section 340(1) CA read with Section 340(5) CA offence and was sentenced to an imprisonment term of two years and 10 months on 14 January 2022.
Gold buyback scheme
The Gold Label ran a gold buyback business between 2009 and 2011. The company sold gold bars to its customers at a premium of more than 20% above prevailing gold market prices in contracts lasting three or six months.
In exchange, the customers were promised guaranteed returns as high as 24% per annum. At the end of their contract period, customers had the option to sell the gold bars back to The Gold Label at the same price that they had bought the gold bars. This effectively allowed the customers to recoup their initial investment amount in full, while still making guaranteed returns, creating a semblance of a risk-free investment with attractive returns. During its operations, The Gold Label attracted more than 2,000 customers and accumulated sales of about S$150 million.
However, The Gold Label had neither any profit-generating business nor any sustainable means to honour the payment and buyback obligations owed to its customers. Instead, the company relied entirely on new sales proceeds from subsequent customers to pay the obligations owed to the earlier customers. In October 2010, The Gold Label filed for a winding-up application.
By then, The Gold Label’s payout and buyback obligations to its customers had amounted to more than S$85 million.
James and How were the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of The Gold Label respectively. At trial, the duo’s main defence was that The Gold Label had a “formula” which could generate sufficient profits for the company to honour its obligations. The court however found that no such “formula” existed, and that the duo knew this to be the case from the start.
For knowingly being parties to the carrying on of The Gold Label’s business for a fraudulent purpose, James and How were sentenced to three years and 10 months imprisonment respectively.
As for Wong, he was earlier sentenced to an imprisonment term of two years and 10 months after pleading guilty to one count of an offence Section 340(1) read with Section 340(5) of the CA.
Members of the public are advised to exercise caution when dealing with investment opportunities. Before committing to an investment, always Ask, Check and Confirm.
ASK as many questions as you need to fully understand the investment opportunity. If the company is unable to, or avoids answering any of your questions, be wary.
CHECK on the company, its owners, directors and management members to assess if the opportunity is genuine.
CONFIRM the company’s and representatives’ credentials by using available resources, including the Financial Institutions Directory, Register of Representatives and Investor Alert List on the MAS’ website (www.mas.gov.sg).
So I 26M have a friend who we’ll call Jared. Jared is married to a woman who’ll be named Joyce so Joyce has been nothing but a control freak in their relationship we barely ever hung out because she wouldn’t allow him to go out without her being there she wouldn’t let him drink in public or go further than his home area without her approval.
A couple of months ago, Jared and Joyce were getting married with plans for a baby but I wasn’t really fond of the idea so I took things into my own hands I reached out to Jared’s parents and told them about all the things Joyce restricts him from doing without her consent or knowledge.
After hearing my lengthy phone call my friend got really upset at me for saying stuff like that to his parents without him knowing causing him to try and marry Joyce without his parent’s approval he did and for a month we didn’t talk or do anything with each other until a couple of days ago.
I got a phone call from his parents because they threatened to cut him off from the financial aid they’ve been giving to him and his brother so knowing full well he can’t live on the money he makes and the fact that Joyce doesn’t work he had no choice but to divorce her.
Eventually, he called me and was really upset at me for causing their divorce and calling me an Ahole.
According to the Land Transport Authority (LTA), they have completed its latest review of Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) rates
LTA said that based on their monitoring of traffic conditions in August 2022, traffic has built up at various stretches of expressways.
To manage congestion at these locations, ERP rates will be adjusted by $1.00 with effect from 19 September 2022 at the following 5 locations during the 5 specified time periods.
Time Period
Current ERP Rates*
ERP Rates** w.e.f. 19 September 2022
AYE before Alexandra towards City
8:30 – 9:00
$0.00
$1.00
AYE after Jurong Town Hall towards City (Set of 3 Gantries)
17:30 – 18:00
$2.00
$3.00
Southbound CTE after Braddell Road & PIE Slip Road into Southbound CTE (Set of 4 Gantries)
8:30 – 9:00
$3.00
$4.00
PIE (Kallang Bahru & Slip road into Bendemeer) – Set of 2 Gantries
8:30 – 9:00
$0.00
$1.00
Northbound CTE after PIE (Set of 2 Gantries)
19:30 – 20:00
$0.00
$1.00
*ERP rate per Passenger Car Unit (PCU) **Rates for other time slots at previously announced gantries remain unchanged
Rates for the other previously announced timeslots/gantries remain unchanged. With these adjustments, the number of locations and timeslots charged is still significantly lower than the number charged pre-COVID.
LTA will continue to monitor traffic speeds and congestion levels closely and assess if ERP rates need to be further adjusted.
Facebook user Jessica Foo shared how she bought a new toilet bowl from a hardware shop at Tanjong Katong and had a bad experience.
She said that the workers allegedly scratched her marble floors while replacing her toilet bowl, and when she called the shop to complain, the lady boss allegedly told her that her toilet flooring was “already old” and the small scratches “nevermind”.
Here is what she said
I have bought a new toilet bowl (WC) from Hoe Kee Hardware Pte Ltd located in Tanjong Katong Complex recently and encountered very bad experiences with their installation services.
When they were replacing the toilet bowl, they have damaged the marble flooring in my toilet. There were several scratches (see pictures) after the replacement was done.
Probably they have dragged out the old toilet bowl whereby caused the scratches.
When I called them to highlight my dissatisfaction with the service and demanded for compensation, the shop lady boss told me that the scratches were small and my house toilet flooring was already old nevermind for such little scratches and advised me to apply some marble polish liquid or similar and soon it will be gone.
To conclude she refused to compensate and told me to look for his workers if I am not happy. Also she told me that she don’t really care if I want to go ahead to lodge a complaint against her shop to the relevant authorities. Irresponsible & disappointed service.
Facebook user Benjamin Invidia Cheng, shared how he had pre-ordered the new iPhone 14 Pro from Starhub and chose silver.
However, “to his horror,” he later received a confirmation email that he selected colour was space black, and when he contacted their customer service, they all gave the same reply.
He said that Starhub gave him an option of cancelling his pre-order and wait 4-6 weeks for the refund to finish processing.
Here is what he said
To everybody that managed to preorder iPhone 14 successfully from StarHub, please check the confirmation email to ensure you have the correct colour. The confirmation email states a different colour selected from checkout and there’s a few others that encountered the same issue as me.
During iPhone 14 pro’s launch, when placing my order I selected and checked out silver(doubled checked). Didn’t suspect anything admiss until I chanced upon some complaints on their Facebook post stating their colours were changed in the confirmation email.
So when I checked my email, to my horror it shows that the colour I have preordered (like the rest)is space black.
I called customer service and contacted their Facebook support- all gave the same replies(even used a template reply and stated that I have selected deep purple when it’s silver), they said nothing can be done once we locked in our colours. In the first place the colour we selected is different from the confirmation email.
They gave me an option of cancelling and the refund process will take 4-6 weeks. Now that the preorder is already closed for StarHub, there is no way I can re-order a silver and get it on 16 September. I don’t see how their stores can still have all colours available on launch day and they can’t simply just honor the correct colour that we have selected upon check out.
Playing merry go round now with all the customer service officers. None able to rectify the issue. They all gave the same replies, “once order placed, cannot be changed.” “Waiting for revelant team to get back to us” “Only way is to cancel and re-order the selected colour which you can’t as the preorder is now closed.”
Like hello? Your system glitched with many others experienced same issue. Instead of stepping up and fixing the issue you guys keep giving the same template replies. We are forced to accept the colour. Not everyone has an extra 1.3k lying around to make an extra order, when all u guys can do is maybe just reserve the correct colour in store and we go down to pick it up. It’s really unethical that because of a system glitch, customers are forced to accept another colour for the iPhone 14.
They even ask me to provide screenshot that I selected the silver colour upon check out. It was through a Facebook external mobile browser from a link that I clicked through their page. Who would have expected that a reputable company like StarHub, would have monkeys as their engineers, causing the website to glitch and send customers a different colour than the one that was selected? I had my trust in them that the colour would be correct and somehow colour changed to space black in the confirmation email.
I’m not even goanna start on how long it took me to even preorder from them with multiple crashes. And their website unable to handle the volume of customers. All I want is the correct colour that I have selected and paid for. Please advice what I can do against this company that uses this kind of means and ways to force customers into accepting something they didn’t choose for.
A Comfort DelGro taxi driver was fired last month when a passenger, who was pregnant and had two children with her, lodged a complaint against him.
Facebook user Zdhnray Mohammad posted about the alleged incident on Facebook on 22 August, and drew more than 4,500 shares.
He had allegedly refused to take them to their destination of Yishun via their preferred route and dropped them off at Toa Payoh instead, with the passenger’s husband claiming that his wife allegedly suffered panic attacks.
The driver, 64-year-old Mr Lim Chye Beng, spoke to Shin Min Daily News to share his side of the story, and explained that he needed to drop the passengers off and rush home to get his blood pressure medication.
The passenger had suggested Lim to take the BKE to SLE route towards Yishun but he later missed a turn, and the passenger then suggested that he turned back but it was impossible on the expressway.
Passenger tried to shortchange driver
Lim then apologised and went on the CTE route instead and suggested the customer to pay the fare that she usually pays.
The passenger then said that the fare that she usually pays is $14, and Lim then felt like something was wrong and told her that the fare should be no less than $18.
He explained to the passenger that the booking fee for the taxi was already $3.30, and the metered fare for the first 1km was $4.10 along with a peak period charge of $1 – the pre-trip costs already amounted to $8.40.
The passenger then allegedly told him “I will only give you $14, up to you to take it”.
Husband hurling vulgarities at driver over phone
The passenger then called her husband, who scolded him and hurled vulgarities at him over the phone, resulting in his blood pressure rising.
Lim was not feeling well as a result, because he was suffering from high blood pressure and heart disease, he then told the passenger he had to drop them off so he could rush home to get his medicine.
Lim said that he dropped the passenger and her kids off at a taxi stand in Toa Payoh and made sure that they were in another taxi before they left.
He then informed Comfort to cancel their NETS payment, and the passenger was not charged for the trip.
Taxi driver got fired instead
Following the story that went viral, ComfortDelgro has responded to the complaint against their Taxi driver and has fired the taxi driver.
Zdhnray Mohammad’s original Facebook post
At 9.54pm, I booked a cab for my wife and 2 kids who were at Marsiling to come back home to Yishun using the Comfort Delgro app. A few minutes later, the cab driver, LIM CHYE BENG, called to inform that he has reached the location.
When my wife and kids were walking towards the cab, he lighted his cigarette and told to wait inside the cab while waiting for him to finish smoking. It took him more than 5 minutes to finish smoking before he started driving.
Go via long route
Since it’s not a fixed fare, my wife instructed the driver her preferred route (BKE – SLE – Mandai). However, he suggested via CTE, but my wife declined as it was clearly out of the way. The driver then continued to drive. In the car, my wife was busy handling two sleepy toddlers without being aware of the journey. When the driver reached the expressway, the driver drove passed SLE going towards PIE.
Feeling something was off, my wife checked the map and told the driver “Uncle, I say Yishun. Why you want to go towards Toa Payoh?”. The driver was defensive and lied saying “No, in front there is Mandai” when it was clearly heading towards Lornie Rd/Braddell.
Deliberately drops her off at wrong destination
He then asked my wife “Usually how much you travel from Marsiling to Yishun?”. After my wife said it’s less than $20, he started to get angsty and showed attitude. To my wife’s horror, the driver said “Like that I drop you off at Toa Payoh. You go take another cab, I don’t want to drive you! I wanna go back home I stay at Toa Payoh. You are wasting my time and petrol”.
Being heavily pregnant, my wife began to have panic attacks and have series of shortness of breath. So she called me and I told her to put on speaker for me to talk to the driver. When on speaker, I ordered the driver to send my wife and kids back to Yishun but the driver just refused to do so.
The Public Service Division said in a press release that Administrative Officers and Judicial and Statutory Appointment Holders will receive salary adjustments between 5% and 12%.
This is so as to help the civil service attract and retain talent for their key leadership roles.
PSD’s Statement
Salary adjustments for the Administrative Service, Judicial and Statutory Appointment Holders
Administrative Officers and Judicial and Statutory Appointment Holders will receive salary adjustments between 5% and 12%, to keep pace with the market and enable the Civil Service to attract and retain a fair share of talent for key leadership roles.
The Public Service Division (PSD) will be adjusting the salaries of the Administrative Service and Judicial and selected Statutory Appointment Holders, which were last adjusted almost 15 years ago in 2007/2008.
Since then, gaps with market benchmarks have increased significantly. These adjustments will enable the Public Service to continue to attract and retain its fair share of talent for key leadership roles.
To narrow the gaps, the salaries of the Administrative Service and Judicial and Statutory Appointment Holders will be adjusted by between 5% and 12%. The salary ranges will also be adjusted.
The effective date for the salary adjustments is 1 October 2022.
About 300 Administrative Officers and 30 Judicial and Statutory Appointment Holders will benefit from the salary revision. The Judicial Appointment Holders include the Chief Justice, Judges of the Court of Appeal, Judges of the Appellate Division, Judges of the High Court, and Judicial Commissioners. The selected Statutory Appointment Holders include the Attorney-General, Deputy Attorneys-General, Public Service Commission Chairman, and Auditor-General.
As a progressive employer, beyond providing competitive salaries, the Public Service will continue to strengthen development efforts across all schemes of service. Administrative Officers can continue to look forward to job rotations, attachments in the private and people sectors, as well as leadership milestone programmes. These efforts will enable our officers to give their best in service of Singapore and Singaporeans. The Public Service will continue to periodically review salaries of public officers and adjust them when necessary to broadly keep pace with, but not lead, the market.
