Greedy/ Gullible Singaporean

It was in today's Sunday Times. A teacher was swindled of $61K by some Chinese syndicate. Apparently somebody called her up, telling her that she won some lottery/ lucky draw kind of thing from Hong Kong. The lure: $150K.

First they got her to cough out $5K+ on the pretext that she was only allowed to claim the prize after paying the tax. I do not know how tax systems work in HK, but in Singapore and US no lottery pays out before deducting the tax due on the winnings, and in UK and Canada lottery winnings are tax-free. Anybody with commonsense would smell a rat here, check and double check the tax system in HK before making the commitment.

Next under the pretext of other excuses such as signing up for membership with the company to claim the prize, the teacher was further swindled another $50K+. She borrowed money from friends and even took a bank loan with a 17.9% interest. All in hope of getting the $150K. How she realised she was duped I do not know, but what amuses me was her comment, "I am not greedy, I am just too trusting. That is my nature."

Not greedy my foot. These syndicates work on human greed. The greedier their victims, the better because it would be easier to fleece the money from them. Compound with the lack of commonsense, victims like the one mentioned above are making the syndicates laugh their way to the Swiss banks.

Practise a little commonsense here. If you have never bought any lucky draw/ lottery ticket from HK, would you be winning any prize from there? And I really cannot decide which is worse, a greedy teacher or a teacher who lacks commonsense.