I am interning at a certain popular e commerce company. I will be here until the end of the year, and it is quite dreadful everyday.

It is not that my superiors are nasty. They are friendly and teach me stuff. However because most of the employees are not Singaporean, the work culture is quite different, even the way they treat Singaporeans is also different.

They only care about their fellow countrymen, so if the team consists of people from different backgrounds, the team will not be bonded. It is quite obvious that they are only friendly with each other for work relations.

Recently a new full timer joined my team. He is also from that country. As such, he is treated extremely well. He was given a tour around the office and they even treated him lunch.

Back when I joined, there was no such treatment lol. But I guess it is because I am a temporary staff there is no need to treat me that well. I am fine with that.

However, my supervisor has been assigning work that was meant for me, to him. Hence ever since he joined my workload has become significantly less and I don’t learn as much anymore.

I am also kept out of the loop for projects that I used to be part of, and he has replaced me. My supervisor even asked me to give him my script which I spent 1 entire month working on, so that he can take over my duties.

Now I dread going to work because I want to be busy and learn things but now I cannot because everything has been passed to this new guy.

Maybe my supervisor finds it easier to communicate with someone of similar background as her, so she stopped giving me important tasks and instead gave them to him.

It has come to the point where every day I have to ask for work because I have nothing to do. But the work assigned to me is extremely mundane.

I miss the days before this new full timer joined. I really don’t know how I am going to handle the next few months in this team.

Netizen’s comment

Do not overthink. From your perspective, it appeared that they are giving you less work and make you less important.

Take note that you are not a perm staff and will leave the company in a few months. From the company perspective, they have to plan the handover of your tasks to the perm staff. This is a normal hand over plan.

You may take this as a learning point as an intern. One day if you become the boss of the company, you will do likewise, by transferring the tasks to a perm staff before the intern leave. Your asking is valid as you have yet to see the world.

The body of 80-year-old Mr William Leck Swe Chua, who suffered from Dementia, was found in a drain in Hougang earlier this year on 3 January.

Mr Leck’s body was found by a lorry driver, and at the time of the discovery, Leck had been reported missing for about 3 days.

Investigating officer Freddy Tan spoke during the first day of the coroner’s inquiry into Leck’s death and ruled out foul play.

He added that his death could have been an accident.

Body spotted by a lorry driver

IO Tan said that the police received a call from the lorry driver who spotted Leck’s body in a drain at about 7 pm, and when the police and the SCDF arrived at the scene at 42 Defu Lane 7, the body was in an awkward position.

Tan added that Leck was dressed in his underwear and a vest and that his t-shirt was rolled up to his neck area.

The authorities extracted Tan’s body that night at about 10 pm, and he was identified via a fingerprint analysis, with a meteorological report from NEA indicating that it was raining for the three days before Leck’s body was found.

Tan also added that they found no signs of trauma on Leck’s body.

The deceased’s Bermuda shorts, wallet and phone were found after a search of the carpark; his phone was faulty but they could still extract data from the SIM card.

None of the deceased’s relatives was present in court, with Leck’s son working in China, and IO Tan added that Leck’s granddaughter said that she last saw him in December last year.

Last seen walking in and out of the location 7 times

Leck’s partner told the police that when she woke up on the morning of 1 Jan, she noticed that Leck was not at home and assumed that he had left to go to the coffee shop.

The elderly couple lived at Block 313 Hougang Avenue 5, and when she returned from work and he was still not home, she called him at 3 pm and he told her that he was on his way home.

CCTV footage at the heavy vehicle carpark revealed that at about 3.20pm, Leck was walking in and out of the location 7 times, and he was last seen at about 4.30 pm heading towards the drain where he was later found.

Leck’s partner then tried calling him at about 7.30 pm but there was no answer.

According to Mr Leck’s medical reports, he was diagnosed with cancer in 2011 and later, dementia – where sufferers lose their cognitive functions such as reasoning, memory and thinking.

IO tan was then asked by State Coroner Adam Nakhoda to seek more details from Leck’s partner about the phone calls she made to him on that day.

The case has been adjourned to 12 September.

Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) arrested 134 suspected drug offenders in a two-week island-wide drug operation from 15 to 26 August 2022. During the operation, controlled drugs of about 3,730g of heroin, 866g of ‘Ice’, 5,240g of cannabis, 2g of ketamine, 21g of New Psychoactive Substances (NPS), 51 ‘Ecstasy’ tablets, 108 Erimin-5 tablets, 29 ‘Yaba’ tablets, a bottle of methadone and four bottles of liquid suspected to contain GHB (gamma-hydroxybutyrate) were seized. These drugs have an estimated street value of about $555,000.

2. Some of the areas covered during this island-wide operation included Bukit Batok, Kallang and Sengkang.

23 August 2022: Two men arrested in the vicinity of Chai Chee Avenue

3. In one of the cases in the island-wide operation, CNB officers raided a residential unit in the vicinity of Chai Chee Avenue, and arrested two Singaporean men, aged 58 and 59, in the early morning of 23 August. A small amount of heroin and a bottle of methadone were seized from the unit, along with various drug paraphernalia.

4. Prior to the arrest, suspected controlled drugs were believed to have been thrown out of the unit’s window. Officers later recovered the substances, which included three packets and straws containing about 13g of heroin.

Photos 1 and 2 (CNB): CNB officers retrieving suspected controlled drugs from a construction hoarding in the vicinity of Chai Chee Avenue on 23 August 2022. The substances were believed to have been thrown out of a unit’s window prior to the arrest of two suspected drug offenders in a CNB operation conducted on the same day.

23 – 25 August 2022: Two men arrested in the vicinity of Ghim Moh Road

5. On 23 August, Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) officers at the Parcel Post Section noticed anomalies in the scanned images of a parcel while performing screening. Upon further checks, officers uncovered a packet of cannabis concealed in a CD case. The case was referred to CNB for further investigations. About 26g of cannabis was found in the packet.

6. In a follow-up operation conducted on 24 and 25 August, CNB officers arrested two Singaporean men, both aged 21, in the vicinity of Ghim Moh Road. About 71g of cannabis was recovered from one of the men. The man was also escorted to his residence in the same vicinity, where another 120g of cannabis and various drug paraphernalia were seized from his residence. An airsoft gun and pellets were also seized from the same man’s vehicle and was referred to Singapore Police Force (SPF) for further investigations.

Photos 3 and 4 (CNB): A packet containing about 26g of cannabis, concealed in a CD case, was found inside a parcel by ICA officers on 23 August 2022.

Photo 5 (CNB): An airsoft gun and pellets seized from a 21-year-old Singaporean man’s vehicle in the vicinity of Ghim Moh Road in a CNB operation on 24 August 2022.

7. Superintendent Christopher Lee, Commanding Officer of Enforcement ‘A’ and ‘E’ Division, said of the island-wide operation:

“The arrests and seizures from this island-wide operation is a testament to the Home Team’s commitment in keeping Singapore safe and secure. CNB will continue to work closely with the Home Team Departments to prevent the flow of drugs both into or within Singapore, and launch timely enforcement operations to neutralise all drug activities.”

8. Investigations into all arrested suspects are ongoing.

CENTRAL NARCOTICS BUREAU

26 August 2022

The Police have observed a resurgence of a scam variant that involves scammers impersonating legitimate property agents and asking victims for payment to secure the rental of a unit before viewing the property. Since January 2022, at least 997 victims have fallen prey, with total losses amounting to at least $3.9 million.

In this variant, the victims would typically respond to an online property listing and initiate a conversation with the scammer via WhatsApp using the contact numbers in the fake online listing.

During the conversation, the scammer would impersonate a registered property agent and convince the victim of his credentials by sending a picture of the property agent’s business card and pictures or videos of the property to be leased.

The scammer would then request for the victim’s personal details to prepare the lease agreement. When victims asked if they could view the property, the scammers would claim that the landlord was unavailable.

To add an air of legitimacy, scammers would send a copy of a lease agreement with the name and NRIC of the purported owner of the unit to the victims for signature.

After signing, victims would then be instructed to make payment for various reasons (such as rental deposits, stamp duty or other fees) to secure the rental.

Victims would only discover that they had been scammed after the scammer ceased contact with them or when they reach out to the legitimate property agents through other means.

The Police would like to advise members of the public to adopt the following precautionary measures:

• Verify the legitimacy of a property listing via the following means:
  
• Liaise with a property agent using only the agent’s phone number registered on CEA’s Public Register. Members of the public may check whether a property agent is registered with the Council for Estate Agencies (CEA) by searching for the agent’s phone number on the CEA Public Register. If the search does not lead to the property agent’s profile page, it means that the property agent has not registered that phone number with the CEA and the listing may be a scam.
  
• Contact the agent’s property agency to verify the authenticity of the listing.
  
• Beware of calls with the “+” prefix which originate from overseas;
  
• Do not make any payments before a property viewing; and
  
• Do not disclose your personal information, credit card and bank details or passwords, including one-time passwords (OTPs), to anyone.

If you have information related to such crimes, please call the Police Hotline at 1800-255-0000, or submit it online at www.police.gov.sg/iwitness.  Please dial ‘999’ if you require urgent Police assistance.

For more information on scams, members of the public can visit www.scamalert.sg or call the Anti-Scam Hotline at 1800-722-6688. Anyone with information on such scams may call the Police Hotline at 1800-255-0000 or submit information online at www.police.gov.sg/iwitness. All information will be kept strictly confidential.

PUBLIC AFFAIRS DEPARTMENT
SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE
26 August 2022 @ 12:30 AM