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Stop Cheating
By Tan Kin Lian  •  January 21, 2009
[caption id="attachment_1171" align="alignright" width="128" caption="Tan Kin Lian"]Tan Kin Lian[/caption] It recent years, it seems that cheating is allowed. You only need to say “caveat emptor” or “registered” with the XYZ authority. What is cheating? According to Wikipedia, “Cheating is an act of lying, deception, fraud, trickery, imposture, or imposition. Cheating characteristically is employed to create an unfair advantage, usually in one's own interest, and often at the expense of others. Cheating implies the breaking of rules.” Credit linked notes Recently, more than 10,000 ordinary folks were misled into investing in credit linked notes. They were told that the notes were as safe as fixed deposits. The prospectus has a warning “you could lose part or all of your savings on a credit event”. However, the investors were advised by the trusted advisers to ignore this warning as the likelihood of a credit event is very remote. They were also told that the notes were approved by the Monetary Authority of Singapore. Actually, the prospectus said that notes were “registered” with MAS, but the difference between “registered” and “approved” were not clearly explained to them. It was subsequently found that the nature and risks of the credit linked notes were quite different from what the investors were led to believe. Many people lost their lifetime savings. The total loss was more than $500 million. SMS premium services Two months ago, I participated in a free online survey and provided my mobile phone number. Later, I received regular SMS messages asking me to participate in a contest. If I were careless and reply to the SMS, it would cost me $4 for each contest entry. I had no clue about the prize and chance of winning the contest. I suspected that the payout ratio would be very low, and that could get much better odds by betting on 4D. After receiving more than 20 SMS messages and avoiding them with great care, I complained to my telephone operator. They “obliged” me by asking the service provider to remove my number from their list. They politely replied that they were not responsible for the service. I do not accept this argument as they probably take a big cut from collecting the monthly fee. Read more... Source: tankinlian.com
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By Tan Kin Lian
Mr Tan Kin Lian (fomer NTUC Income CEO) started his insurance career in 1966 in a local life insurance company. He has also worked in various positions as a computer programmer, organisation and methods officer and consulting actuary. Mr Tan writes daily in his blog. The information in his blog is transparent and has an open approach.
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