An undated photo of signage at the headquarters of Singapore state investor Temasek Holdings in the Southeast Asian city-state.
Bryan van der Beek | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Singapore’s Temasek Holdings has warned that scammers are allegedly trying to sell financial investment products or instruments to unsuspecting individuals while posing as agents from the company’s office in Shenzhen, China.
“We have been alerted to a fraud in China involving the impersonation of Temasek in Shenzhen, using our registered office name ‘Temasek Holdings Advisors (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd.’ / ‘淡马锡电影咨斯 (深圳)有限公司’,” Temasek said in a statement on Wednesday.
With a net portfolio value of 382 billion Singapore dollars ($284.5 billion) as of March 31, Temasek Holdings is one of two Singapore state investment companies, along with the more traditional sovereign wealth fund GIC. It is an active investor and shareholder with three offices in mainland China in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen. Temasek maintains a total of 13 offices in nine countries outside of Singapore.
“The scammers fraudulently claim to represent our Shenzhen office and solicit money from individuals with the premise of paying them back with commissions,” Temasek said.
“This is a scam and has nothing to do with Temasek. Temasek does not directly sell any investment products or financial instruments in China. We have not authorized any third party to do so on our behalf,” the Singaporean investment company added.
“We reserve all rights to pursue legal actions and remedies against any person or company that imitates Temasek and/or infringes our intellectual property,” Temasek said.
From fake Apple and Ikea stores and defunct Disneylands to fake milk powder, medicine and food, China is grappling with fakes that in recent years have caused adverse health effects or cheated victims out of huge sums of money.
China’s state news agency Xinhua reported Tuesday that Myanmar has so far handed over a total of 31,000 suspects to Chinese authorities in a crackdown on phone fraud originating in northern Myanmar that targeted mainland Chinese.
(tagsTo Translate)Asian Economy