Better safe than sorry: Resist urge to invest in too-good-to-be-true schemes

[cyclone]

Better safe than sorry: Resist urge to invest in too-good-to-be-true schemes

by Lorna Tan
PUBLISHED May 7, 2017

It sounds like a surefire winner - buy plots of cheap land overseas and get your money back, plus a tidy profit once they are sold off to developers.

Or this one: Buy agarwood trees that would eventually be harvested for their valuable timber and oud oil that is used in fragrances and spas.

Yet another is a so-called oil bunkering scheme that probably had nothing to do with oil. It was sold as a financing arrangement with promises of high, regular payouts and capital back after a specified period that could be as short as eight months.

And in another investment scheme that turned sour, retail investors were persuaded to park their hard-earned savings with financial experts who would trade stocks or forex on their behalf.

Besides the above, several firms, including Genneva Gold, Gold Guarantee, Profitable Plots and Sunshine Empire, have surfaced in recent years at the shady end of the Singapore financial service sector.

All these schemes were offered with low initial investment sums and attractive returns over short periods.

But big losses can also come with the territory, as many Singaporeans can attest.

More details in http://www.straitstimes.com/business/inv...than-sorry

[brattzz]

YES!!

just spend the money happily lah!! it's better than giving them to these scams!!! :O

[Duskerdawn]

"Another investor in her 60s had parked more than $500,000 in binary options but has not been able to withdraw any returns nor her capital.

To make matters worse, she lost more money when she tried to retrieve her money through an overseas agency that claimed to have helped other binary option investors trapped like her.

In her bid to recover her retirement savings, she had responded to an individual who claimed to work for an international police agency who linked her up with a hacker.

She forked out $10,000 on the hacking software but nothing has materialised. In addition, she is considering legal help from the US but has been told to pay a high initial fee."

Sad story but sort of hilarious at the same time. She got conned 3 times. I remembered reading an article a couple of months back where binary options scammers moved on to creating "help for binary options scams" claiming to be able to assist you in "recovering your money". (You can search on google, there is a website that claims to be able to help you recover your money - 99% sure it is a scam, but cant be bothered to call them to confirm.) Have to give it to the scammers, they have marked out their target segment very well. Targeting previous gullible investors is the best way to get your scams to work.

[CY09]

This also applies to some stocks where the net cash value is higher than market cap (think s chips like fjzy) or companies whose double digit profit growth never stops (sfig)

[Wildreamz]

companies whose double digit profit growth never stops (sfig)

Reminds me immediately of F.A.N.G stocks. Which my friends have been saying is too good to be true since 2010. Interesting.

[zz...]

This also applies to some stocks where the net cash value is higher than market cap (think s chips like fjzy) or companies whose double digit profit growth never stops (sfig)

It would be good if SGX allows short selling to profit from these situations

[brattzz]

greed over common-sense?? :O :O :O

everytime see these scam cases, sigh...waste of money... just spend it all!