Newspaper Review 4

Date: Thursday, 11th December
Article: Four women fleeced by chatline conman
The Strait Time, A3.

Overview:
Tan Sze Leong pretended to be rich, and promised the women that he met on internet chatline well-paying jobs before cheating them. Sze Leong offered Ms Wong (one of his victims) $20,000 a month to be his personal assistance and mistress. Ms Wong took the position over the course of four days in June, shelled out $20,000 on mobile phones for him and designed bags for his girlfriend. But after handing over the haul she never saw him again. Tan had pleaded guilty to seven cheating charges, however only $4,800 worth of the loot he swindled has been recovered. He made use of a fake identity to chat with those women online and cheated them in paying for the things that he wants, saying that his banker would pay them monthly salary. In actual fact, he is just an unemployed who lives in an HDB flat.

Reflection:
I think that Sze Leong shouldn't do this. If he wants to get something, he should work hard to pay for it and not get it by cheating the money of other women. It took these women a lot of effort and time to save this money, he shouldn't make use of the trust they had in them and cheat their money.

We must always be aware of the strangers we meet online. Knowing to judge if a person is trustworthy is very important. We shouldn't believe whatever a stranger says to us. Many people that we meet online can be dangerous and have a motive for getting close to us. We must be cautious of them and not to walk into the trap of theirs.

To Sze Leong, it may seem to him that what he had done wrong is just the cheating of money from these women. However in the eyes of these victims, the trauma that they are facing is impossible to measure.

Ruifang :D