Tan Kin Lian's Blog: False hope

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

False hope

I spoke to an investor in a land banking product. He has invested for nearly two years and is still waiting for his invested sum to be returned to him. He has not even collected the interest payment of 12.5%. He has since lost his job and his money is tied up in this investment. He has been promised a few times that the company is finalising the sale of the land and expects to repay the investment in the near future. It never materialised but he still remained hopeful and naive.

He is reluctant to lodge a complain with the authority or talk to the newspaper as it might cause the company to collapse. He still harboured the hope that his money will be repaid to him in the future. He even hoped that the company would be successful in the sales to new investors, so that they can collect the money to repay him. This is a selfish attitude, which reflects a shameful character of many Singaporeans.

What this investor does not realise is that there is virtually no chance of getting approval to develop the land or for the land being sold at a profit. The company tells a false story to keep the naive investors from taking action to enforce their rights. As time goes by, their chance of recovering their invested money will diminish, and it will soon be too late. Even if the company is able to get new funds, they will not repay the naive and weak investors. They will just cook up another excuse to give false hope.

If you are caught in this situation and you wish to meet other investors in the same situation, give your particulars here.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...: In Singapore, everyone of you better learn to immediately have a lao-lan and sia-lan attitude towards everything. This is a You Die Your Business environment. If you drop dead in the middle of the street, only your immediate family will care, the rest of Singapore will curse you for blocking their path and polluting the air with your dead body.
Everyone is just screwing each other for self-benefit. Govt screws the people. Rich business owners screws the workers. Workers screw the company. People screw the govt. Charities screw the people to donate. People screw charities to get handouts. Poor screw the rich by conning them to buy crap stuff. Rich screw the poor by voting against social help. Poor screw other poor to be the first to con the rich. Etc etc.
Moral of the screwing story? Trust no one, only you can help yourself.; March 17, 2010 12:28 AM
Anonymous said...: http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/archive/index.php/t-2463256.html

Mr Tan reading the above forum will scare all the gullible investors and wake them up.; March 17, 2010 4:39 AM
Mike said...: What is the Spring position on this SQC certified company? Surely spring can withdraw certification if a company is not delivering what it promises (a very basic measurement of quality). Everyone seems to be afraid to act against this company. Are they protected for some reason ?; March 17, 2010 8:36 AM
Anonymous said...: In Cambodia, we hear about the Killing Fields......where innocent
victims were slaughtered.

In Singapore, lack of investment skills and knowledge, makes one vulnerable to be scammed!

The trend is on the rise as some investments are not regulated here.

If no action taken, these category of investors will have nighmates of getting back their money that I term the "Screwing Fields"; March 17, 2010 9:54 AM
Anonymous said...: LandBanking can be lucrative, even the rich have accumulated wealth through this sort of investments.

You need sheer luck and timing to be on your side.

But the risk is "Time" & "No Buyers/Developers" It gives me a scare when huge chunks of land are sold as investments!

I better pay the $100/- Levy to the Casino and try my luck there!; March 17, 2010 10:01 AM
Anonymous said...: Are we in the merry-go-round screwng spree?.....everyone with "Boh Chap" attitude & let the so called Foreign Talents in to Screw this poor investor and the many others?; March 17, 2010 6:53 PM
Anonymous said...: I wonder why people don't invest in REITS instead of land banking.
With REITS you get dividend yield.
If they bought REITS one year ago
they will be getting a yield of more than 10% of their investment plus good capital gains. Their investments in REITS can be easily liquidated too unlike land banking where you have to find a buyer for your land.
I hate to say this, but investing in shares are the best investments one can make.; March 18, 2010 4:28 PM
Anonymous said...: Unfortunately, such cases are often classified as civil in nature, and in such circumstances and being small time investors, they do not have the resources or means to investigate and go after money trail. Only the relevant authorities have the means and resources to investigate if classified as criminal ... interpol involvement may be required as such crooks tend to be international or transnational in their operations.; May 06, 2010 5:26 PM