Had wanted to blog about this thing which happened on Friday but haven't got the time. After having read Mr Miyagi's entry on "Enterprise" a while ago, the more I thought I should say something about this.
See, this teenage girl approached me at Ang Mo Kio Bus Interchange, explaining to me the charity ticket she was trying to sell and the situation was very much what Benjamin has mentioned in his blog, that "something something ex-convict, something something....", which I could barely make out. I requested to take a further look at the so-called authorising memo she was holding on to and couldn't helped but find it not substantial enough to indicate that she was authorised by the relevant authority(ies) (so said to be a member of NCSS) to sell the tickets to the public. That memo was merely one prepared and undersigned by the so-mentioned social service organisation. I did a brief comment that I was expecting to see a police permit instead even though I wasn't too sure it is the right document for her to have; well at least I recall we needed a police permit to sell movie tickets to the public for our fund raising movie screening back in my polytechnic days. I was quite doubtful but something just brushed this doubt aside making me decide to get one from her. My, she actually wanted to sell me 2 tickets which I turned down, indicating I'll just get one.
When I finally boarded the bus, this girl also boarded the same bus with her group of friends, who apparently were also selling those tickets. Surprise, surprise.....I actually saw one of them filling up a time sheet and the time sheet was letter-headed as D****** Marketing or something like that. I also overheard that they actually needed to meet some sales quota!!! So they were PAID to sell the charity tickets!
Quite some time back, there were people questioning such pay-to-sell-charity-tickets activity, questioning the actual amount of money going to the intended charity / social service organisations when it made news. The authenticity of such activity was also discussed.
Yup, it did occur to me for a split-second-moment then that it could be a scam, or as what Benjamin has put it - a con in action, but finally brushed it aside. I was probably in a good mood to not turn it down, just probably.
See, this teenage girl approached me at Ang Mo Kio Bus Interchange, explaining to me the charity ticket she was trying to sell and the situation was very much what Benjamin has mentioned in his blog, that "something something ex-convict, something something....", which I could barely make out. I requested to take a further look at the so-called authorising memo she was holding on to and couldn't helped but find it not substantial enough to indicate that she was authorised by the relevant authority(ies) (so said to be a member of NCSS) to sell the tickets to the public. That memo was merely one prepared and undersigned by the so-mentioned social service organisation. I did a brief comment that I was expecting to see a police permit instead even though I wasn't too sure it is the right document for her to have; well at least I recall we needed a police permit to sell movie tickets to the public for our fund raising movie screening back in my polytechnic days. I was quite doubtful but something just brushed this doubt aside making me decide to get one from her. My, she actually wanted to sell me 2 tickets which I turned down, indicating I'll just get one.
When I finally boarded the bus, this girl also boarded the same bus with her group of friends, who apparently were also selling those tickets. Surprise, surprise.....I actually saw one of them filling up a time sheet and the time sheet was letter-headed as D****** Marketing or something like that. I also overheard that they actually needed to meet some sales quota!!! So they were PAID to sell the charity tickets!
Quite some time back, there were people questioning such pay-to-sell-charity-tickets activity, questioning the actual amount of money going to the intended charity / social service organisations when it made news. The authenticity of such activity was also discussed.
Yup, it did occur to me for a split-second-moment then that it could be a scam, or as what Benjamin has put it - a con in action, but finally brushed it aside. I was probably in a good mood to not turn it down, just probably.
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