Thursday, August 28, 2008

Mystery Phone Call Finale

After 1 week, the mail which is supposed to carry my prize money still has not arrived... Just when I was dead sure that this is all a scam, Xiao Tong called.

She was very surprised why I did not contact her when I did not receive the money after so many days. I told her I have forgotten about it (Though the truth is that I don't even believe this whole story!). She panicked and asked me to contact their lawyer from Huan Yu International (环宇国际).

Their lawyer, 何正宇, told me that I have to collect my prize money personally as the amount is huge. But who in their right mind will travel to HK for a prize money?

Ok... side track a little... the 3rd prize which I have won is a Mercedes Benz E350 worth HKD 486K. Which works out to be SGD 86,700. But I have to pay 3% tax (福利公益税) which is about SGD 2,500. Well... after tax, it is still a lot of money to me!

To cut the story short, after calling Xiao Tong and the lawyer a few times, they said that there was a case where a person from Malaysia also won the same prize, but did not have to go to HK to collect it. And he got his money within 1.5 hours.

When I asked the lawyer to process my case in the same manner, this is what he told me...
First of all, you need to make payment to HK xxx dept for the 3% tax. Once that is cleared, you can give us your account number and we will credit the money directly into your bank account.

Tada!!! There you have it! The answer to my curiosity.

So the question is: will you risk $2.5K, in return for $85K?

My reply to the lawyer and Xiao Tong: Thank you so much, I am not going to claim this prize money! =)

3 comments:

cheekades said...

Wah... the first time in your life u won such a big prize.. but u give it up.. hehe...

big big scam... so many cases have been reported in sg and yet they are still trying to cheat...

Musical Notes said...

Yah... *sigh*

That's why I never believe when pple tell me I have won a prize...

I where got such luck??

Anonymous said...

hi, my friend is chinese and lives in Brazil, and received several phone calls, similar to yours.