Recently, a woman in Singapore was scammed of over S$53,000 in life savings after she tried to purchase durians from an app.
Since then, there’s been an outpouring of support for the lady, including from one durian stall owner, 8world News reported.
He has offered her S$5,378 worth of durians in a bid to help her “fall in love” with the fruit again, he said.
Kelvin Tan, the owner of 99 Old Trees Durian, told 8world News that he intends to offer S$5,378 worth of durians to the scammed woman, Ms Xu.
He said he was sympathetic after hearing of her plight.
“Ms Xu said that because of this incident, she no longer wishes to eat durians,” he said.
I want to help her by giving her durians so she can fall in love with durians again, and allow her to continue eating the fruits she likes.
Mr Tan believes scams and unscrupulous merchants have tarnished the durian industry, which makes it difficult to recruit workers.
“I hope to use this small act of kindness to let everyone know that there are still honest business owners,” Mr Tan said.
As he thought it would be inappropriate to give the woman cash, he decided to give a tenth of the amount she lost, which amounts to durians worth S$5,378.
Source: @99oldtrees on Instagram
“I plan to give her about 200kg of Musang King durians, which should be enough for around 100 people,” he said. “If she likes other varieties and we have stock, we’ll fulfil her request.”
Though he initially thought that she could resell the durians to recover her losses, he thought of another idea — to send her separate batches during each durian season yearly for the next 10 years.
“That way, her relatives and herself can enjoy durians for a long time.”
Mr Tan has reached out to Ms Xu with his suggestion and, as of the time of the interview, is waiting for her reply.
“I did consider that she might reject me, but that’s okay,” he shrugged.
Mr Tan hopes others won’t get scammed and advises customers to learn about current market prices.
“If any store is selling durians for ridiculously low prices, it’s likely a scam,” he advised.
Next month is expected to be durian season and there will be many durians from Johor on sale then. This will be followed by another durian season in September.
He also encourages customers to visit physical stalls instead of buying them online.
“During the pandemic, some small durian shops began to sell their wares online. However, they don’t have a good reputation and they may not have as much credibility as physical stalls.”
Most durian stall owners also don’t really have the budget to create a mobile app for their business, Mr Tan revealed.
“It’s too expensive,” he said. “Most companies have social media and websites, but they can’t make an app.”
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Featured image adapted from @99oldtrees on Instagram and Instagram.
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