A LOAN shark threatens to splash acid on her daughter's face. The banks are after her for $25,000 charged to six credit cards.

All because her boss used her name and personal details without her knowledge to apply for the cards, she alleged.

She also claims he used her name as guarantor when he borrowed from loansharks.

He allegedly applied for the cards in June last year and the loan in December.

When contacted, the former boss said he 'disagreed' with her claims, but declined further comment.

While the bank debts are a concern, what is giving her sleepless nights is the loan shark's threat about disfiguring her 20-year-old daughter.

The 36-year-old single mum who wanted to be known as Ms Chua said: 'I got a SMS with a threat that acid would be splashed on my daughter's face.

'I don't know how they know I have a daughter.

'I'm afraid for her safety and have to wait downstairs for her when she returns from work at night.'

In all, the loan sharks demanded $4,100 from her.

The harassment began when Ms Chua, who does administrative work, received a call at about 11.30pm on 17 Dec last year from a man, who called himself 'Bulldog'.

According to this man, her former boss had named her one of his guarantors, using a photocopy of her identity card, when he borrowed $500 from a loan shark.

She said he had access to her particulars and a photocopy of her identity card when she applied for the job.

In a police report, Ms Chua said Bulldog asked her to pay $1,700 for the paint that had been splashed on her former boss's unit.

He asked for another $220 for the padlock used to chain the debtor's gate and a flower pot that had been thrown at the unit. She was also asked to pay $480 in interest.

Ms Chua said Bulldog threatened to do the same thing to her flat if she did not bank in the money to his account.

She did not pay him.

A few days later, on 21 Dec, she found the words 'Owe money, pay money' scrawled in marker pen next to the gate of her Ang Mo Kio unit.

She then called her former boss to ask him to settle his debt, but she said he refused.

Things quietened down over the holiday season.

Then on 7 Jan, Ms Chua started receiving calls from a loan shark again.

This time, she was told her former boss had borrowed $3,700.

She was told that as one of the two guarantors, she would have to pay $1,700 on her former boss's behalf.

She then started receiving threats via SMS.

She filed a police report.

A day later, she got the threat about her daughter.

Ms Chua said her boss' antics have been making her life miserable since July last year.

She said she 'got a shock' when she received a bank letter last July about a credit card debt.

She said: 'I called the bank and told them I never received the card, so how could I have used it.

'The bank said they had sent the card to my office, but I told them I didn't even apply for the card.'

Ms Chua recalled how her boss had asked her to apply for this particular credit card as there was a 'promotion'.

At the time, he had been helping her with her application for two other credit cards from the same bank.

Her suspicions aroused, Ms Chua confronted her boss.

She said: 'He admitted that he had applied for the card. He then asked me what I said to the bank officer.

'When I told him, he asked me to tell the bank that it was a mistake, that I'd used the cards. He said he'd settle the credit card payment.'

She did not agree to his request and tendered her resignation a month later. She had been working for him for two years and was earning about $3,000 monthly.

Ms Chua said: 'I had no more trust in him. I was very angry whenever I saw him.'

She said her former boss admitted to forging her signature on the credit card application form and when using the card for purchases.

Ms Chua said: 'I didn't know how many other cards he had applied for using my name.

'When I asked him at the time, he said, 'No more'.'

But the bank later informed her of two other credit cards that had been issued in her name.

In total, there was an outstanding debt of more than $8,000 on the three credit cards.

In October, a lawyer's letter was sent to MsChua's home address.

It revealed that another two credit cards from a second bank had been issued in her name.

There was an outstanding debt of about $16,000 for the two cards.

Ms Chua showed us some bank letters as well as lawyers' letters.

She then made the first of two police reports over the cases.

NEVER SEEN THE CARDS

But in November, she found out about yet another credit card issued in her name with a debt of about $900.

She said she has never laid eyes on any of the six credit cards, and that they are now with the police.

Police spokesman Stanley Norbert said that investigations are ongoing.

Ms Chua said the investigations are being handled by the Commercial Affairs Department.

She said the banks will decide if she has to pay the credit card debt once the investigation results are out.

This article was first published in The New Paper on Jan 23, 2008

Is this article useful to you?