My sis wanted to celebrate my birthday, so on Friday, we had dinner with Francis, my sis and Bernice at Tung Lok Orchard Central.
During the dinner, Francis talked about new shows such as Arrow, Leverage, etc. We also talked about Anna, who failed to return the money I lent to her. My sis told told us that Anna had not returned money borrowed from a few relatives, and she was TWICE convicted for drugs.
After the dinner, we went home as Mable wasn't feeling quite well, and after checking out Wikipedia, I thought Arrow looked pretty good, and started acquiring it.
Saturday morning, called up OCBC to verify that whenever a funds transfer is done in-person at the bank, there is a transaction slip. I called again, just to verify from another OCBC rep, in case the first one was mistaken.
Since Anna has failed to return the money to me by 21st March as promised by her, and had failed 2 bank transfers (The first bank transfer, she claimed she didn't enter my complete name. The second, there wasn't a reason). And for the third transfer, which was done in-person at the bank (she messaged me via WhatsApp on Friday) she said there wasn't a transaction slip, so she couldn't send a photo of the transaction slip.
I then told her (via WhatsApp) that I would go to her Starhub Call Centre to collect the money, but she said no, she'll bring the money to me, wherever I am, between 5pm-6pm, by asking Lauren to bring her there. Unfortunately, I guess Lauren refused to do so, and she asked me to go to her office between 1230pm - 5pm.
When I reached Starhub Call Centre, I went in the back and spoke to a manager and told her that Anna Yang is an ex-convict and a repeat offender(she was jailed twice for drug trafficking or drug consumption) and to warn her staff not to lend money to her. I then met Anna and she returned me the $300 and told me to deduct the $17.90 (from the 3rd transfer - which I believe will not succeed). This brings me to my point - trust but verify. In future, before lending anyone money, make sure to ask for proof (such as NRIC, and also an IOU), so that if necessary, I can turn up at his/her home to get back the loan.
In my Chinese horoscope for this year, it was mentioned to be careful about lending money, and losing stuff. Sure enough, I lost my first Samsung Note 2 which I had bought for only 2 weeks. And unless I'm wrong, when Anna asked for help from me, she did intend to cheat me. This is evident from the facts that she failed to return the money that I lent to her by 21st Mar (her own promise) and that she failed or lied about all 3 bank transfers.
During the first 2 weeks in my BMT, I had willingly helped a group of recruits buy their name tags, and subsequently, they refused to pay me back. This incident made me wary of lending anyone money until Anna. And the lesson taught by Anna should never be forgotten.