<!-- Story Without Image / With eXtra Large Image End --> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="560"><tbody><tr><td colspan="2" valign="top" width="550">Woman faces bankruptcy because of ex-lover <!-- TITLE : end--> </td> </tr><tr></tr><tr> <td colspan="2" align="left" valign="top" width="550"> <table> <tbody><tr> <td> <table><tbody><tr><td>
The Star/Asia News Network </td> </tr></tbody></table> </td> <td align="right" width="400">
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KUALA LUMPUR: A Singaporean software engineer has been cheated of not only her life savings but also chalked up credit card bills totalling a quarter million ringgit (S$106,425). Believing she could help settle her 34-year-old ex-boyfriend's massive debts, the woman who only wanted to be known as Chang, applied for credit card cash advances from 15 banks and is in danger of being declared a bankrupt.
'It started very small as he said he lost money on football betting. Then the amounts got larger and he said he owed some Ah Long (loan sharks),' she told a press conference organised by the MCA Public Service and Complaints Department yesterday. Chang, 31, who was in a relationship with the man since September 2008, said he told her that he needed the money to finance his business, which she admitted she knew nothing about.
She said he 'suddenly disappeared' in April. The last message he sent in reply to her numerous unanswered calls read: 'Do not call me anymore or I will ...' Chang said she was now struggling to settle her loans with monthly payments of RM6,000. She earns about the same amount from her job in Singapore. She added that her family - her mother and a younger brother - knew nothing of her financial troubles.
'I don't trust men anymore. I trust money more now,' declared a visibly upset Chang. On Monday, she saw department head Datuk Michael Chong who managed to contact the man's sister who lives with his family in Kuantan. 'When he came to the department and we confronted him, the man promised to pay Chang RM2,000 monthly so that we would not publicise his picture,' Chong said.
Nevertheless, Chong said he had instructed his lawyers to study Chang's case and would consider filing a police report if the man did not pay up soon. Chong said the department had handled 18 cases in the past five years of women being cheated of their money by their boyfriends.
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