【天下沒有白吃的午餐】

【天下沒有白吃的午餐】

【There is no free lunch in the world】

2015-04-24 Translated by SOONG PHUI JEE

Sin Chew Daily

詐騙案無所不在，這一次是跨國在泰國、中國和馬來西亞陸續上演，詐騙者手段狡滑，捲走巨款，受害人則畢生血汗錢化為烏有，讓人扼腕。詐騙集團近年愈來愈多樣化，規模也愈搞愈大，許多人固然是因為財迷心竅而上當，執法當局若有防範和對付詐騙集團的良策，則可避免更多人受騙。

泰國警方揭發，跨國網絡銷售公司優趣集團（UFun）通過金字塔傳銷形式，詐騙泰國12萬名會員高達42億令吉的款項，而被警方逮捕的8名涉案者當中，有3名是馬來西亞人，據說泰警還在追捕多名UFun公司高層，包括一名有拿督頭銜的大馬人。更不可思議的是，UFun的幕後老闆據說是曾在大馬掀起雲數貿詐騙風雨的中國人張健。

由此看來，UFun的跨國詐騙手法極為高強，而張健涉案若屬實，則反映泰國當局有所疏漏，泰國警方既已在去年10月將張健逮捕歸案，為何還能讓他繼續翻雲覆雨，假借UFun外殼噬走民眾的金錢？

另一方面，過去大馬人曾被騙到中國廣西參與所謂的“南寧”投資計劃，造成巨大金錢損失。目前卻似大馬人在中國瀋陽開設“華玉黃金”公司，以黃金投資計劃詐騙中國人的血汗錢，據悉已有1千500多名中國人上當，損失金額高達10億令吉。許多人抵擋不住該公司的“高額利息回報”的誘惑，而將全部身家孤注一擲，希望能快速取得巨額回酬，卻因此而傾家蕩產。

事實上，無論是雲數貿、UFun、南寧投資或是華玉黃金投資，他們的運作方式都有一些共同特點，例如公司裝修豪華、執行人豪華名車代步，公開展示大捆花綠綠鈔票等，以讓民眾相信公司的“實力”，並以“高額回酬”“錢生錢”及“快速致富”的概念，利誘民眾投資。

詐騙集團便是針對人性這種想在短時間內賺取大筆錢的貪念與弱點而屢屢得逞，而受害者遍佈社會各階層，無論男女老少，學歷高低，只要心存快速致富的貪念，便容易受騙，賠了夫人又折兵。

現今社會各種騙案頻繁，多少也反映社會經濟情況欠佳，沉重的生活壓力讓人萌生快速致富擺脫困境的念頭。然而，無論經濟壓力多沉重，還是必須腳踏實地努力幹活，天下並沒有白吃的午餐。

http://opinions.sinchew.com.my/node/36262

【There is no free lunch in the world】

Various kinds of scam companies with growing scale can be found everywhere in recent years and these cunning companies have swept away large sums of money, emptying the savings of their victims. In deed, many people were fooled due to greed, however, if law enforcement authorities have good preventive and anti-fraud measures, they can prevent more people from becoming the next victims.

Thai police recently arrested eight suspects for involvement in pyramid marketing, which has allegedly swindled 120,000 people in Thailand, and the damages are estimated to be as high as RM4.2 billion. Among the eight arrested suspects, three are Malaysians and it was reported that Thai police is still hunting more executives of UFun Store Co Ltd, including a "Datuk". More incredibly, it was said that the big boss behind UFun is Zhang Jian, who had been involved in the infamous YSLM scam in Malaysia.

The UFun is a highly intelligent transnational scam and if Zhang is really involved, it will reflect omissions in Thai authorities. Since Thai police has arrested Zhang in October last year, how could he continue swindling the public?

Earlier, some Malaysians were lured to join a so-called Nanning investment programme in Guangxi, China, resulting in a huge loss of money. There were also reports alleging that some Malaysians have founded a gold investment company in Shenyang, China to swindle hard-earned money from the locals. It is learned that over 1,500 Chinese have been fooled, and the damages have achieved RM1 billion. Many people have invested all their money as they could not withstand the temptation of "high returns", and thus, all their savings are gone.

In fact, there are some common features in the mode of operations among these scam companies, such as luxury offices, executives with luxury cars and openly showing stacks of banknotes to convince the public that they are able to give them high returns and help them make fortunes rapidly.

The desire of making great fortunes in a short period of time has much helped these scams success and all victims, regardless of gender, age, social status and educational background, are easily deceived once they have greed to make fast money.

Various scams in today's society have more or less reflected the poor socio-economic condition. Heavy living pressure has led to the idea of getting rich quickly, to get rid of the plight. However, regardless of how heavy the economic pressure is, we still must work hard, be realistic and always bear in mind that there is no free lunch in the world.