A Singaporean woman who had been harassed by illegal loan sharks asking her to repay money borrowed by her maid, wrote to a local paper to warn others not to fall into the same trap.
A 40-year-old woman wrote to a newspaper and recounted how she regretted re-hiring her Filipino maid, who had a history of borrowing money.
The woman, an office worker at a bank, told Lianhe Wanbao (Singapore) that she re-hired her maid because the divorced mother had difficulties caring for her elderly mother, daughter and granddaughter.
She had first hired the maid in 2015, who initially performed well, but was then sacked later that year after borrowing money from compatriots and having trouble repaying it.
In the past two years, the employee kept in touch with her former maid on social media and the maid complained about her financial difficulties in the Philippines and begged to get her job back.
The employer relented and re-hired her in August last year.
In April this year, the employer’s elderly mother had a conflict with the maid and threatened to send the worker home, while the maid called police. The employer then decided to sack her because the dispute was a minor one and did not warrant police intervention.
Two weeks later the employer started to get nuisance calls from loan sharks, who threatened her and demanded she pay off a S$500 debt on behalf of the Filipina maid.
She filed a report to police, but harassment calls and texts from loan sharks continued. She said in the end the harassment stopped after she emailed the loan sharks and told them the maid had returned to the Philippines.
Love is sweeter the second around… But to be fooled a Second time around is indeed more bitter