Tan Kin Lian's Blog: Company above board?

Friday, December 14, 2007

Company above board?

By Larry Haverkamp (Doc Money)

LAST week was filled with news stories about Sunshine Empire. The company has convinced 20,000 Singapore investors to part with as much as $12,000 each.

Despite the publicity, no one is still very sure what the company does.

Both the Singapore and Malaysian authorities have put it on their 'investor alert lists'. Entities on such lists are not authorised by the authorities to conduct regulated activity. While not well-known, these lists are extremely useful.

Other governments also have lists which give names of companies doing foreign land sales, internet fraud, lookalike web sites, identity theft, fake lotteries, Nigerian advanced fees, pump and dump, affinity scams, telemarketing and more.

It got me thinking, 'Wouldn't it be great if there was a web site listing all questionable companies? Then, if you hear about a deal that sounds too good to be true, you could check it out.'

Non-transparent but legal
1) Bank Products
2) Insurance companies
3) Reits

Read the full article here:

http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/columnists/story/0,4136,146946,00.html

http://www.tankinlian.com/drmoney/

8 comments:

Anonymous said...: A product can be sold in many ways and the salesman is the manipulator.
The worst product in the world can still be sold because there are a lot of suckers.
The sales manipulator uses the following:
Relationship(appearing caring and sincere)
Trust
Hard selling
Persistence
Misrepresentation
Mis-selling
Concealment of facts
Falsehood
Dishonesty
Blackmail
That explains why a lot of bad insurance products can be sold despite expert analysis to the contrary.In the recent years the apparently bad products but disguised with refund, cashback and dividend, coupon features could be sold because the above were used to manipulate the customers' ignorance and emotion. Very often the poor are the victims.
Will you say that the approaches if used by insurance agents are no difference from those used by scam?
You notice that there is one commonality,. They are not truthful and the objective is to cheat and make the customers part with their money, and the interest of the customers is never in mind.; December 14, 2007 9:45 AM
Anonymous said...: Yes, would it be great if there is also web site that analyses all insurance products.
Also hope MAS will have a register
with all the names of insurance agents with their qualifications and disqualifications too.; December 14, 2007 10:18 AM
Anonymous said...: Yes, there is a market of suckers out there. That's why scams can thrive. Just look at how people can easily fall for phone scams, lottery scams, investment scams and what not. Some of these suckers are even well educated. Sometimes I can't believe it, although it's true. What more of insurance? Not exactly a scam but can become a long term financial rip off disguised as protection and/or investment.; December 14, 2007 1:17 PM
Anonymous said...: Now you know insurance products no matter how lousy they are there is still a market.You mustn't underestimate the "power" of selling or the power of scamming the salesmen employ. They can turn black into white. They can turn a poor product into a super product.That is the stuff insurance industry is teaching their salesmen . "The Secret" only known to great people in history is now unveiled to the insurance agents.
The mind over matter, if you can master you can sell whatever products, revosave, prucash, or the lousiest regular ILPS with ripped off features. This is how scams work and it has many similarities as selling that the line dividing them is blurred. One day selling or scamming can be used interchangeably. Thanks to the life insurance industry which is a strong protagonist of this skill set.; December 15, 2007 12:20 AM
Khiat Han Hwee Adrian said...: It is interesting to see an article on Sunshine Empire becoming another platform for Insurance people to be scolded.

Are the Insurance people being viewed on the same footing as these people commiting Ponzi scams, frauds and theft?; December 15, 2007 3:55 PM
Anonymous said...: Sunshine days and rainy days and other confusing revolutionary words are used by scams these days. In Ponzi's days products were repackaged to pass them off as new. The unwary customers with the help of their agents and sales distributors fooled the customers into investing their hard earned saving into this scheme that promised liquidity, high return and some incentive on some life style exotic trip by the company.
The worst hit were the poor people who were attracted by 'too good to be true' 5% return on their cash.The 5% cash coupon turned out to be their own money. To sustain paying 5% the operator has to rake in more investment. Many investors
like today's Time Share were made to go through a long presentation and through a maze of jargons,numbers and hard to follow reasoning.When the customers showed sign of less resistance and numbed mentally that they were made to sign the contract that would bind them for next 20 years or up to 25 years depending on which package the client chose.
Today there are many variations of this scheme and Sunshine Empire is one but unfortunately many complains of aggressive over pushing.Glad that authority is looking into this before more people suffer by the unscrupulous company and its salespeople.; December 17, 2007 11:20 AM
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