New Domestic Worker Borrowed $4,000 from Loan Shark, Then Ran Off With Her Passport

Indonesian Maid Borrowed Money, Vanishes with Passport – Singaporean Family Left in Shock

In a shocking turn of events, an Indonesian maid borrowed nearly $4,000 from loan sharks. When the truth came to light, the maid took advantage of Ika’s absence, broke into drawers using a fruit knife, stole her passport, and fled..

Her employer, a 39-year-old teacher named Ika, told Lianhe Zaobao that she has hired a 32-year-old maid from Indonesia since March of 2023. 

It is the maid’s first time working in Singapore as well. Ika described her as initially naive and unfamiliar with household appliances such as the oven when she started working. 

Despite her average performance, the family treated the maid well and allowed her to use a mobile phone.

(Not that it should be a privilege or anything, I believe that every working adult in Singapore should be entitled to a mobile phone, but that’s just my personal opinion.)

Things Take a Darker Turn

In November, the maid claimed to have financial difficulties and requested an advance of $300, and Ika agreed to deduct the sum from her December salary.

In December, the maid asked if she was able to postpone the deduction to the following month, to which Ika also consented.

On 3 January 2024, Ika had to remain at home due to illness and noticed the maid acting nervously. She began questioning her about being at home, raising red flags in her employer.

The next day, the maid confessed to owing money to loan sharks but did not specify the reasons or the amount.

Initially suspecting a scam, Ika confirmed her employee’s debt to loan sharks after checking her phone and even started receiving threatening messages herself.

Worried for her family’s safety with their address exposed, Ika did not terminate her maid’s contract but also agreed to allow her to repay the debt from her salary.

To Ika’s dismay, she received more messages from loan sharks, and her husband, abroad at the time, discovered the maid missing one day through home surveillance on his mobile phone.

Unable to contact her, they feared for their children’s safety if the loan sharks came to their address. They urgently told their children to lock themselves in rooms as a result.

Rushing home from work, Ika found that their drawers had been pried open with the maid’s passport missing.

A bloodied fruit knife was also present at the scene, insinuating that the maid had injured herself while prying open drawers.

Her children were also found crying from shock and fear.

Distraught and alarmed, Ika reported the incident to the police and subsequently cancelled her work permit on the Ministry of Manpower’s website.

The family, traumatised by the incident, urges others to exercise caution when hiring domestic help and emphasises the need for background checks to prevent similar incidents.

As of the afternoon of 9 January 2024, police confirmed the report about the mysterious disappearance of the maid and investigations are currently ongoing. 

How Ah Longs Target Foreign Domestic Workers

A Facebook post uploaded by netizen Keisha Low on the group Singapore Scams Discussions discusses how loan sharks prey on naive domestic workers.

In the lengthy post dated on 1 August 2018, she reflects on her own experience where her employee ended up owing hefty sums of money to 10 of these individuals.

She states, “These maids don’t know that if you take a proper loan, you need proper paperwork like identification documents, payslips, etc. And these loan sharks will lie that their loans are 100% legal.”

These loan sharks will allow workers to borrow S$400 and allow you to repay them every week in S$100 instalments. However, they would catch victims off-guard by demanding payment just three days later.

If the maids are unable to cough up that money, interest snowballs. Some are also forced to borrow money from other loan sharks to repay their first debt.

Low also revealed the ways loan sharks are able to obtain employers information to harass them when their employees cannot repay their debt.

Some loan sharks go as far as harassing neighbours and close relatives.

She concludes her Facebook post by urging employers of foreign domestic workers to educate maids about these scams, lest they fall victim. 

Other Scams to be Wary of

According to The Straits Times, there were 3,181 migrant workers who were victims of scams in 2021, up from 1,965 in the previous year. 

About 357 of them were foreign domestic workers. 

A bit more recently in August 2023, a foreign domestic worker took to an anonymous support group on Facebook to warn her fellow workers about the dangers of scams.

She wrote that scammers will go door-to-door pretending to do a survey and promising to give S$10 for the completed survey.

The catch? They would ask to take photos of their work permit, which is extremely dangerous as they can use for nefarious purposes. 

On 17 May 2023, another maid fell victim to a scam that disguised itself as a cash-on-delivery scheme that required her to pay out of her own pocket for a package that she believed to be her employers’.

In any case, it is important for both employer and employee to remain alert for scams and to foster healthy communication in order to prevent tragedies from occurring.

(Or, you can take a page out of this elderly woman’s book and learn how to see if your money is being stolen from under your nose.)