Bizarre scam triangle? Singapore woman says boss posed as coworker to deny salary

Photo: Avel Chuklanov
Photo: Avel Chuklanov

A woman who says she was stiffed a month’s pay by a digital marketing agency may have found out the hard way that, online, anyone can be anyone.

The writer’s bizarre allegations that a man posing as her colleague turned out to be her boss all along have been circulating online after she made the discovery upon trying to recover the unpaid wages.

Writing as Claire SWF on Facebook in a post headed “HOW MY BOSS PRETENDED TO BE MY COLLEAGUE SO HE DIDN’T NEED TO PAY ME,” she said that she joined Elevate Sales last year and had been working alongside another writer named Tay Siang Hong. After two months, they were both fired by a man named Joshua Chua, who she thought was the head of the firm.

According to the woman, she sought compensation from manpower authorities after the company failed to pay her for the second month of work. It was then that she discovered Chua was not the boss, but Tay was. 

Chua and Tay have neither responded publicly to the writer’s allegations nor inquiries sent online by Coconuts Singapore.

“Apparently the same thing happened with the secretary,” the writer said of another employee she said was terminated and denied pay. Claire posted screenshots of what she said were chat exchanges about the payment issue.

“So I went to MOM/TADM to complain and get back my money,” the post read, referring to the Ministry of Manpower and the Tripartite Alliance for Dispute Management. 

“TADM REVEALED IN THE RECORDS THAT ALL ALONG JOSHUA WASN’T THE BOSS BUT SIANG HONG WAS,” she added.

She also said Chua was indifferent to staff “incessantly” contacting him about their delayed pay. 

“Because he isn’t the one who would get into trouble for it, in reality, this fella masquerading as the head of the company was just a mere shareholder,” she said. 

A Facebook profile that appears to belong to Chua lists him as the founder and director of Elevate Marketing Consultancy. His website shows that he also runs business seminars. 

A LinkedIn page with Tay’s name listed identifies its owner as a digital marketing executive at a separate company. It does not mention Elevate. 

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