Madam Tay, a 63-year-old officer cleaner at Suntec City, was allegedly coerced by sales personnel at Opatra, a beauty salon also at Suntec City, into spending S$13,180 on beauty products and equipment.
Madam Tay's son, Lim TC, wrote to Mothership in a tip-off about the "aggressive and unethical" sales tactics that were employed by three Opatra personnel in particular.
Three staff allegedly invited the woman to view products
The incident happened on Sept. 4 at 1pm after Madam Tay's work shift.
According to the police report that Lim provided to Mothership, Madam Tay was walking past Opatra when a sales staff invited her in to look at some products. The staff were apparently "very aggressive" in her invitation.
There were three Opatra staff who were part of this "aggressive and unethical sales tactic" said Lim. He identified them as an employee, a manager, and a beautician.The former two are Malaysian Chinese, while the latter is a Filipino, according to Lim.
The staff first convinced her to buy S$1,180 worth of beauty products. These were paid for via two NETS payments. Later, Madam Tay was convinced again to buy another set of equipment and facial products which cost S$12,000. According to the police report, Madam Tay was made to believe that the products were of value to her. This time, she could only use her debit card to pay S$2,000.
Told to withdraw cash from bank
For the remaining S$10,000, Madam Tay was told to withdraw cash. Lim said that the staff even followed Madam Tay to a DBS branch to withdraw the amount. Over at the bank, a teller noticed that there were two women waiting for Madam Tay and tried to warn her about scams which target the elderly. However, his mother was "too confused and caved in", wrote Lim.
"She was intimidated by their persistence and did what was told from the staff after the long five hours."
No REFUND
More at https://mothership.sg/2020/09/suntec-opatra-beauty-salon/
