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SNGAPORE : Several Singapore town councils may have lost a small part of their sinking funds through exposure to failed Lehman Brothers-linked investment products.

Works such as public housing estate repairs and maintenance to keep lifts running smoothly are paid using a town council’s sinking fund. But it is not enough to keep millions in the bank collecting interest.

“If the inflation rate is 1 to 2 per cent a year, what it means is that the money you have is (reduced) by 1 to 2 per cent. So if we could generate a certain percentage point of return that will ensure, in real value terms, the money we have for future use will be sufficient,” said Yeo Guat Kwang, member of the Aljunied Town Council.

But how a town council invests its money is the tricky part.

Take the Bishan-Toa Payoh Town Council for example, which has a sinking fund of more than S$137 million.

Its chairman, Zainudin Nordin, told Channel NewsAsia its investment team keeps in close contact with fund managers.

They are told that the principal amount invested must be guaranteed, as they are handling public funds. Such prudence has so far helped it avoid the pitfalls of a bad investment.

Singaporeans said they understand the need for town councils to invest the funds. But they also draw a clear distinction between what is an acceptable loss in a low-risk investment and a high-risk one.

“There’s no harm investing it, but nobody knows it will end up like that, so I don’t think they are wrong in investing it,” said one Singapore resident.

Another said: “They can invest, but it should not be the high-risk type of investments. This is because it’s the residents’ money, and it’s for use for other purposes.”

“When people invest… say 20 per cent in risky assets, it’s acceptable. But if they put more than they can afford, that’s risky business,” said a member of the public.

East Coast Town Council chairman Jessica Tan said its intent is not to make money but to ensure that its S$88m worth of sinking funds do not sit idle, and is adequate in the long run.

The town council’s conservative approach is to invest in capital guaranteed instruments, like government bonds. Business-savvy resi

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PETA Mean Cooking Mama

Ever played the Nintendo DS’s Cooking Mama? PETA has released a flash-based parody of Cooking Mama in an attempt to show you how horrible cooking animals can be.

Unfortunately, they made the animals so cute, it was pretty fun

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That’s what she said.

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With 80 percent of Americans online, the internet has become the cityscape of the twenty-first century, and with it the good, the bad, and the unsavory. Criminals, in increasing numbers, are flocking to the online world as a new source of opportunity crime, the modern version of the pickpocket, praying on those less tech savvy. With the majority of Americans still somewhat befuddled by computer security, internet crime is a lucrative business.

However, in the world of con-artists and the conned, few stories stand out like that of Janella Spears.

Virtually all internet users have at one time or another received a desperate, if somewhat grammatically flawed plea from the “President of Nigeria” or possibly a banker in Bosnia. The story varies slightly — a long lost relative or government official in a war torn country needs your help, but the ends are always the same — they need your account information to wire money into it, or they need you to wire money to them before they supposedly send you a bigger payday.

While most delete these malicious missives, Mrs. Spears fell for it hook, line, and sinker. Mrs. Spears insists, though that she’s no easy mark — she’s an active registered nurse, CPR trainer, and reverend who has married many couples. She’s even fluent in sign-language, which she uses to communicate with her husband.

Mrs. Spears, though, lost nearly $400,000 USD to the “Nigeria scam” . When she received the first email, she read that she could receive $20M USD that had belonged to her grandfather. She insists she would not have believed it, if not for the fact that she had lost track with her grandfather over the years. She states, “So that’s what got me to believe it.”

The party asked her to send $100 and she complied. Then they said there were problems, and they needed more money, but she might get more. They worked up elaborate stories about how President Bush and FBI Director “Robert Muller” were in on the plans. They sent her “official” documents and certificates from the Bank of Nigeria and even from the United Nations.

The scammers instructed Mrs. Spears to send $8,300 more, telling her that her reward would rise to $26.6M USD. She complied. Many letters followed, each promising more money than the last — if she would only send a bit more money. And every time she complied. Many of the letters were rife with typos, and yet she continued to send in the money, in a case of obsession fueled by greed.

Over the course of the scam she received letters from the President of Nigeria, FBI Director Mueller, and President Bush. They gave her dire warnings — if she didn’t continue sending the money, it could fall into terrorist hands. Of course, all the letters were entirely fake.

In the end, Mrs. Spears wiped her husband’s bank account dry, mortgaged the house they owned, and took out a lien on their car to finance the payments. Despite pleas from law enforcement officials, her family and bank officials who told her it was a scam, she sent tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments over the course of two years. In the end she had lost $400,000 USD, virtually everything she had.

She says it was the perpetual promise that the next payment would lead to the final payoff that kept her going. It became an obsession.

A seasoned undercover investigator who worked on the case says that Mrs. Spears was blinded by greed. He says the scam was the worst he’s ever seen. However, he says he’s seen others, driven by greed, fall victim to the scam, hoping against common sense for a big payoff.

As for Mrs. Spears, she went public with her story, as she says it serves as a warning to others. However, in the end, like most outrageous crime stories, it could have been easily prevented if people exercise a bit more common sense.

http://www.dailytech.com/Woman+Succumbs+to+Greed+Loses+400K+USD+to+Nigerian+Scammers/article13442.htm

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REAL SPIDERMANS IN NEW YORK!!!

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Chickens, the new peacekeepers of the world.

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WOOT?

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Left 4 Dead. Its out people, go buy it off steam and have some zombie killing good times

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- George Jacob, revisits Asia’s Nelson Mandela, Singaporean and Prisoner of Conscience, Mr. Chia Thye Poh.

- Clarence Chua asks if the Singapore Kindness Movement and SMU Undergraduates’ Leadership and Team-Building Project on discouraging people from using Tissues to ‘Chope’ (Reserve) seats in a food court, is the correct way to go.

This post is always updated, so if you’re reading this from an RSS reader, do check back often as your reader will probably not be updated with new links.

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