TRS reader John gave $10 to a cute looking girl who asked him to make a donation, and received this voucher from fast food restaurant Chicken Heaven in return. It turns out that the chain had engaged a direct-selling company to sell the vouchers, with only 40 percent of the proceeds going to charity.
A representative of Chicken Heaven has since explained their involvement in the 'donation drive'.
The TRS reader wrote:
"I believe I have a lead in TRS recent post about young teens approaching people at MRT stations for $10 donations.
"A few days ago, I was in a rush to the MRT at Jurong East, but I was approached by a lady who was asking for ten dollars for charity. Because I was in a rush, I gave her the money, and strangely enough, she gave me a Chicken Heaven voucher, which gives discounts for the fast food restaurant.
"But I realized on the MRT that I was scammed because on the voucher itself, it states that I have bought the voucher for the money.
"Thus I went to their Facebook website and saw a post under 'Recent posts by others' that wrote, quote,
"'Guys watch out. There's a promoter claiming to be selling $10 Chicken Heaven discounted coupons for CHARITY AND FOR A GOOD CAUSE. This is not the case as behind the coupon it states "not for donation or charity." , and so on, you can read the website yourself linked below.
"The Facebook admin of Chicken Heaven actually replied saying that actually only 40% goes to charity."
The following message was also posted on Chicken Heaven's facebook page:
"Dear Victor, we in Chicken Heaven are very sorry to know that if in anyway there are misinterpretation during your purchase of our Promotional Voucher at $10/-.
"We have engage a Direct Selling company, Invixo Consultancy & Services to sell our Advertising Vouchers and please contacted Mdm Goh or Mr Jackson at 6871 8743 to address your incident and we too will seek an explanation from them.
"We also do understand that 40% of the sales proceed goes to a Non-Profit organisation called Hope & Aspiration Association (HAA) http://haa.org.sg and we are fine with that. We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for highlighting such issue to us.
"Feel free to call us anytime or drop us any update pertaining to the said matter and we will update you too."