Give Us Your Passwords
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Give us your passwords
Rental flat residents asked to type SingPass details into insurance agent's iPad to buy policies.
Report by JUDJTH TAN, ZUL OTHMAN and NATASYA ISMAIL
The insurance agents went knocking on doors at three blocks of flats last Thursday and targeted the elderly, the illiterate, and the poor.
Give us your SingPass passwords so you can sign up for our insurance policies, the agents told them.
Some of them did, because they felt that having an insurance policy was important.
But the insurance company the agents work for is now investigating whether they have broken any rules and said it will not hesitate to discipline them if they did.
Last Thursday evening, cleaner Tan Lee Hoon, 48, was home with her unemployed husband, Mr Ang Thiam Boon, 49, when they heard a knock on their door at their three-room rental flat at Dakota Crescent, off Old Airport Road.
They were greeted by a man and a woman who said they were insurance agents with Prudential.
Madam Tan said the agent asked her to provide her SingPass details in order to access her CPF account and then advised her to invest her savings of $9,000.
SINGPASS ACCOUNT
Madam Tan said she had typed her SingPass password onto the insurance agent's iPad, giving access to her account.
Mr Ang said: "They said they were from Prudential and were working with the Government to help low income families with their insurance.
"The woman told us we must buy insurance so in case we are hospitalised, the Government would pay $8,000 and we would only pay $2,000."
When the Angs told the agents they already had a policy, they were allegedly told they could let it lapse and take up the one being offered.
Said Mr Ang: "I often see advertisements on TV about how important insurance was, therefore I believed them.
"It was only when we asked our neighbour that we found out they were not supposed to have asked for anyone's Singpass details."
Acting on a tip-off, The New Paper visited Block 2 Dakota Close and Blocks 4 and 6 Dakota Crescent and discovered that other residents had also been approached by the agents.
About eight residents, mostly low-income elderly and and some of whom were illiterate, bought into their spiel and signed up for insurance policies.
Mr Ang got suspicious when the woman agent did not answer his repeated calls on her mobile phone. It was only when told through SMS that he was going to the police that she called back.
Said Mr Ang: "She came back and returned some of the documents but not all."
He added the piece of blank paper that they made Madam Tan sign on and some other documents were still missing.
When contacted, Prudential Singapore said it would investigate the allegations. (See report, right)
The Angs were not the only ones.
A first-year student at Nanyang Polytechnic, Mr Jasper Sia, 23, signed up for the insurance scheme. Like Madam Tan, he had to give his SingPass number and password to the couple on their iPad.
Mr Soh Whatt Seng, who would give his age only as "50-something", said the couple didn't show any form of company identification when they came.
He said: "I was told to sign a lot of papers, but I did not understand what was on them. And the two didn't explain what the insurance was used for or how it works"
He said he, too, had given his SingPass and personal particulars to them and no documents were returned as proof.
His daughter, who gave her name only as Ying, added: "If they worked for the Government, why did they go door-to-door so late at night?"
Both Mr Ang and Mr Soh tried to make police reports separately but were advised by the police to report the matter to Prudential instead.
When TNP approached one of the insurance agents on Friday evening, the 23-year-old woman made a call to an unknown person on her mobile phone and then told us the whole saga was "a misunderstanding".
She did not elaborate and declined to be interviewed further.
One insurance agent told TNP these agents were "door knocking", an industry term for canvassing for customers.
The practice is not illegal, but the agents should have been clearer in their methods to avoid conflict, he added.
"You must be clear to customers who are signing for a package. The agents should also have explained to the customers about the product and what they needed the SingPass for," he said.
A soft-hearted Mr Ang later said: "As long as they return everything and no money went missing from any accounts, we should give her a chance."
PRUDENTIAL SAYS:
Prudential Singapore says the alleged tactics and actions by the agents are "in no way appropriate", and are "not condoned in any way".
Its vice president of corporate and marketing communications, Ms Pauline Cheah, told The New Paper that these were serious allegations which need further investigation.
"Prudential Singapore takes the quality of our sales process seriously and we will investigate the matter once we have more details or information," she said.
"Should we find these allegations to be true, we will not hesitate to take appropriate and disciplinary action against the offenders."
News, The New Paper, Monday, December 9 2013, Pg 8 -
sibei jialat sia...
desperate for sales also dun need simi pattern also use de...
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Scary.
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char more scary.
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Yes she is.
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car is weird.
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Originally posted by ^Acid^ aka s|aO^eH~:
sibei jialat sia...
desperate for sales also dun need simi pattern also use de...
We should follow what Australia's court do if possible : http://weekendernews.com/court-imposes-1m-penalty-for-doorknockers
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downright despicable for these agents to go and fool those uneducated and low income senior citizens! hope these unethical agents will be identified soon and disciplined, and the best result will be that they are being barred from being an insurance agent forever! why go out and cheat these innocent people? are they so hard up for business? even so, they should do it in an ethical way. go put in the effort to source for business!
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if kena fifi ban password oso no use liao.
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Bend bend bend.
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ask fifi lor.
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Originally posted by shirt_less:
downright despicable for these agents to go and fool those uneducated and low income senior citizens!
hope these unethical agents will be identified soon and disciplined, and the best result will be that they are being barred from being an insurance agent forever!
why go out and cheat these innocent people? are they so hard up for business? even so, they should do it in an ethical way. go put in the effort to source for business!
Exactly, some more they are educated, still wanna cheat ppl...
So hard up and desperate... Cannot perform means cannot perform, cheat wont make a difference...
Bend bend bend~
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acid so educated.
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Like a boss.
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Walk like a boss.
Talk like a boss.
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hanor hanor.
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The Boss.
Born in the USA.
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Originally posted by charlize:
The Boss.
Born in the USA.
cursing in the dark.
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