70YO Employer Helped FDW Pay Off Debts Multiple Times; Worried That She’ll Borrow More

Once bitten, twice shy. That’s the age-old adage we have all heard at some point in time in our lives.

But how many people take this to heart?

For one elderly woman, it seems like she has blatantly ignored the words of wisdom passed down for generations.

Here’s her story.

Elderly Woman Found Out That Maid Had Borrowed Money Including From Loan Sharks

An elderly woman, Ms Shen (Hanyu pinyin translation), had engaged a maid to take care of her father but ended up paying off over $3,000 worth of debts on behalf of the maid.

Earlier this year, in March, the 70-year-old Ms Shen was shocked to find out that her neighbour’s maid, who shared a close bond with the maid she employed, had been pursuing her maid to cough up $1,900.

This $1,900 was borrowed by Ms Shen’s maid from the neighbour’s maid.

As Ms Shen took pity on the maid’s plight, she voluntarily paid over $1,450 of the debt to the neighbour’s maid to resolve the issue. This was one of three instances where Ms Shen paid off her maid’s debts.

Even after Ms Shen settled the debt with the other maid, she still had lingering fears about her maid going out and borrowing money from external parties.

Alas, Ms Shen’s worst fears materialised.

She started to receive strange calls from time and time. Some calls even went to the extent of asking Ms Shen if she was the maid’s employer.

Other calls were asking Ms Shen to sign for some unknown packages originating from Indonesia.

According to Ms Shen, who spoke to Shin Min, her maid had also answered calls which asked the maid to sign and acknowledge certain parcels.

Ms Shen shares that she tried to ward off these uninvited guests by saying that there was nobody at home who was expecting a package and even threatened to call the police on some occasions. However, these visitors often did not go away.

After this string of strange incidents, Ms Shen confronted her maid and asked if her helper had borrowed money from loan sharks. It was then that Ms Shen’s maid confessed to her borrowing activities.

Ms Shen’s maid had allegedly used her work employment pass to borrow $500 from loan sharks. What was even more egregious was giving the loan sharks Ms Shen’s mobile number and listing Ms Shen as the maid’s guarantor.

This breach of trust seems unfathomable, given that the maid had worked for the family for about six years and would most likely have built up a strong relationship with her employer.

Then again, it could have been this sense of camaraderie that the maid was counting and capitalising on when she carried out her illegal borrowing activities.

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Elderly Woman Helped Maid Pay off Loan Shark Debts Multiple Times

After Ms Shen came to know about her maid borrowing from loan sharks, Ms Shen again generously opened her wallet and settled the debt for her maid.

This marks the second instance of Ms Shen’s act of generosity.

Unfortunately, the loan sharks did not stop their harassment. Ms Shen was still the target of threatening messages from time to time.

The image below, a screenshot from a WhatsApp chat, shows that the loan sharks warned Ms Shen not to run and ask her maid to cough up what she owed. The loan sharks also threatened to “go after the address”, which presumably was where Ms Shen lived.

Pushed into a corner, Ms Shen decided to make a police report with her maid. However, the police report did not help to settle matters as Ms Shen still continued to receive messages from the loan sharks.

At this point in time, if you are wondering why Ms Shen did so much for her maid like us, the short answer is that Ms Shen has a soft heart.

According to her, the maid had worked diligently to take care of Ms Shen’s father, and Ms Shen viewed the maid as a member of her family.

When probed as to why Ms Shen did not send her maid back and look for a new maid, Ms Shen divulged that she needed someone to take care of her elderly father.

After six years of hard work from the maid, Ms Shen could not bear to send the maid home. However, since the various incidents, Ms Shen has become more wary and cautious about the maid.

While sending the maid back to Indonesia seems like an appealing course of action, Ms Shen is worried that her maid will continue to borrow from loan sharks when she is back home.

In fact, Ms Shen shares that she had previously repaid her maid’s loan shark debts which predated the maid coming to Singapore to work. The maid had borrowed money from loan sharks in her home country to have enough money to work in Singapore. This was yet another instance where Ms Shen paid off debts for her precious maid.

For some reason, Ms Shen’s behaviour begs the question of why she did not fire the maid right away after realising that her maid was prone to borrowing from loan sharks.

Instead of taking responsibility for cautiously choosing who to surround herself with, Ms Shen seems to place a greater emphasis on the government to protect employers of maids.

In particular, Ms Shen offers her opinion that maids’ work permits should not include the employer’s address. According to her, this could perhaps lower the risk of one’s personal particulars being used in nefarious ways.

She also comments that she hopes this tragic situation which befell her, does not occur to others.

Other Instances of Maids Borrowing From Loan Sharks

As scary as this may sound, the scenario of maids borrowing from loan sharks is not all that uncommon.

There have been multiple other instances where a family’s foreign domestic helper borrowed from these illegal sources.

Just last month, Ms Xie Wenfeng reported her maid for withdrawing a hefty $20,000 from a bank account of the former woman’s mother. Apart from “stealing” the employer’s family member’s money, this same maid also borrowed a whopping $10,000 from loan sharks.

Just thinking about the interest the debt would rack up gives us the chills.

This maid reportedly cut contact with Ms Xie after borrowing money illegally and disappeared without a trace. It turns out that the maid had left Singapore and returned to the safety of her home country, Indonesia. Ms Xie was left to deal with the threats from the loan shark, including dealing with the bone-chilling possibility that her house would be set on fire.

In another instance of disappointing behaviour from the family help, a 38-year-old maid borrowed over $3,000 from a loan shark. This maid was employed by 49-year-old Ms Yan (Hanyu pinyin but not her real name) and had been with the family for over four years. Ms Yan found out about her maid’s illegal activities after realising that her maid was acting oddly and was distracted at work.

The maid was always near her phone and had asked Ms Yan for $3,000 under the excuse of paying for family expenses back home. Alas, the money was most likely used to repay loan sharks, from whom the maid had borrowed $3,150.

And here’s the twist, the maid had borrowed from nine loan sharks.

Unfortunately, these loan sharks started to harass Ms Yan when the maid did not manage to repay the debt. They threatened to burn down Ms Yan’s house and sent pictures of the area near Ms Yan’s house.

It seems like threatening to burn down houses is a loan shark’s go-to modus operandi. But can we really blame them when housing prices are so high? The thought of losing your property is enough to send chills down anyone’s spine (and incentivise them to cough up money for the debt).

Even with all this drama, Ms Yan stood resolutely beside her maid and called the maid “a good person”, announcing that she intended to continue giving her maid a chance to work for the family. Instead of blaming the maid, Ms Yan put her faith in the police by reporting the illegal borrowing matter.

What do you think? Should employers help their maids settle loan shark debts, or should they cut the “burden” and leave the maids to clean up their own messes?