DPM and Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam's parliamentary reply
("Tharman warns operators of gold buy-back schemes against fraud"; Oct 17)
and the replies by the Monetary Authority of Singapore
("MAS spells out regulatory criteria"; Oct 20
and
"MAS explains extent of its alert list"; last Saturday)
have not comforted investors like me
who bought into the gold buyback scheme offered by Genneva,
which is currently under investigation.
Mr Tharman's reply suggested that the authorities indicated a recognition
of the heightened risk of non-discerning investors
putting money into seemingly high-yielding schemes
in the current low interest rate environment.
Yet, it seems that
there was no corresponding increase in regulatory oversight.
Ow Bin Bing (Ms)
5 comments:
Here is another "gold trading firm" http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2012/10/31/nation/12251080&sec=nation
Genneva started operations in 2008 at the height of the Minibonds and High 5 Notes collapse.
Investors like Mrs. Ow must be the bravest of all souls to dare to step into the web spun by this Gold Firm, with a high payout of 24% annually, as against the only 5% earned by the Minibond investors.
How naive could Mrs. Ow be, being aware of the attitude of the Regulator MAS towards the investors of the structured products, with all the hue and cry played out prominently at the Speakers' Corner.
Retail investors must think of risks of losing hard earned money before dreaming of how much they can make from their investment.
Once we have disciplined ourselves to this line of thinking; we will be less prone to any investment scam.
Greed and stupidity led to the plight of all these investors.
If it is too good to be true, it probably is.
Why would anyone believe in something that is sold as "no risk" and giving 24% p.a. is anyone's guess and I think these people chucked their brains at the door when they went for the presentation and forgot to take it back.
No need MAS to tell you that such schemes are traps - it is common sense.
A fool and his gold are soon parted.
Those people who bought years ago would by now have broken even and even made pretty decent profits. If you only bought it recently, then those are the people who lose until die. Their losses led to the slight profits of the earlier investors.
I really pity those who just bought into them.
Had a friend who asked me about whether he should invest into this gold just a few short months back. I asked him about the numbers, then told him that it sounds too good to be true and that it's probably a scam. Furthermore, I heard from some colleagues that some insurance agents from a very large MNC insurance company in Singapore are moonlighting and selling gold.
But my friend still went against my advice and plonked in $10k. I feel sad for him, but also a little pissed off that he did not listen to me, but would rather listen to some glib-talking agent who promise him of high returns. As always, the lure of money is a very strong one, and most people lose their sense of logic. Very tragic indeed..
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