Singapore’s Temasek warns that fake agents in China are trying to sell scam investments

Singapore’s Temasek Holdings warned that scammers are allegedly trying to sell financial investment products or instruments to unsuspecting individuals while posing as agents of the firm’s office in Shenzhen, China.

“We have been alerted to a scam in China that involves the impersonation of Temasek in Shenzhen, using our registered office name ‘Temasek Holdings Advisors (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd.’ / ‘淡马锡投资咨询 (深圳) 有限公司’,” Temasek said in a statement Wednesday.

With a net portfolio value of 382 billion Singapore dollars ($284.5 billion) as of March 31, Temasek Holdings is one of two Singapore state-owned investment companies, along with the more traditional sovereign wealth fund GIC. It is an active investor and shareholder with three offices in mainland China in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen. Temasek maintains a total of 13 offices in nine countries outside of Singapore.

“The scammers fraudulently claim to represent our Shenzhen office and solicit money from individuals on the premise of paying them back with commissions,” Temasek said.

“This is a scam and is not associated with Temasek in any way. Temasek does not directly sell any investment products or financial instruments in China. We have not authorized any third party to do so on our behalf,” the Singapore investment company added.

“We reserve all rights to pursue legal action and remedies against any person or company that impersonates Temasek and/or infringes our intellectual property,” Temasek said.

From fake Apple and Ikea stores and knock-off Disneylands to counterfeit milk powder, medicine and food, China struggles with counterfeits which have in recent years led to adverse health effects or swindled victims out of huge sums of money.

Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported Tuesday that Myanmar has transferred a total of 31,000 suspects to Chinese authorities to date in a crackdown on phone fraud originating from northern Myanmar that targeted mainland Chinese.