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Okuni
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Saturday November 20, 2010
Gullible man falls for insurance agent’s scheme
A TRAVEL agency employee was cheated of RM18,000 by an insurance agent after the latter coaxed him into investing in Amanah Saham Nasional (ASN), Sin Chew Daily and China Press reported. Tang Chyun Boon, 25, from Penang, who had saved the money while working in Singapore for two years, had given the cash to an insurance agent known only as Fenny, to pay for his insurance and investment in ASN.
China Press quoted Tang as saying that he met Fenny during a roadshow at a shopping complex in Johor Baru last year. “She introduced me to an insurance plan and I paid RM2,400 for one year’s premium. “In March, she called me up about the premium and upon handing her the sum, she coaxed me into investing RM10,000 in ASN, claiming the interest could reach 8%. “I paid her S$1,000 and 1,000euros amounting to about RM6,600 in advance,” he said.
Sin Chew Daily quoted Tang as saying that he later paid Fenny another RM8,500 in April and asked her for the euros since the amount he paid her had exceeded the RM10,000 investment. However, Fenny claimed she had placed the money into her mother’s safe deposit box and could not take it out immediately. “She asked for some time to take out the money and also presented me two ASN certificates,” he said.
Tang started to suspect something amiss when Fenny did not return the money and refused to answer his calls. He checked with Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB) and also found that the certificates were fake and that the ASN2 scheme was only open to bumiputras. When his insurance expired in August, Tang found that Fenny had not submitted his payment and he had to fork out extra money to pay the premium.
