SINGAPORE: Three firms have made police reports against a consultancy company over an alleged construction equipment scam, after rented machines worth about S$500,000 (US$392,000) went missing in recent months.
The affected rental companies told CNA they did not receive payment from the firm, Revivify, which also turned out to have a bogus company address.
Investigations are ongoing, said the Singapore Police Force in response to CNA’s queries.
One construction equipment firm, New Town Engineering, said a representative from Revivify first reached out to them in May to ask about renting two excavators.
The man paid for a month’s rental in June. When New Town asked if he wanted to extend the lease, he agreed but requested a grace period to make payment, which New Town accepted.
“However, when we visited his office, we were actually told that there's no such company at this address,” said a New Town employee who only wanted to be known as Anne.
She added that they were not the first ones to show up at Revivify’s registered office at International Plaza.
“This raised my suspicions and I tried to (find out) where my excavators were. But the customer self-collected and delivered to his own site so we did not have details of the address,” she said.
“We didn’t want to alert him that we knew it might be a scam, so we contacted him and asked for the location of the excavators, which he did give. But unfortunately, there is no such address.”
Revivify was registered as a company in 2021 for port and maritime related consultancy services. When CNA visited its registered address, the office was occupied by another company.
Revivify did not respond to CNA's attempts to contact them.
According to New Town's police report, the firm eventually tracked one of its excavators down to a work site at 29 Penjuru Lane.
After roughly 10 hours of administrative tussle involving the police, New Town was able to reclaim its excavator. But the company could not locate its other machine or contact Revivify.
The site of 29 Penjuru Lane.
Anne said their losses came up to around S$55,000 to S$60,000.
She added that when she made enquiries within the industry, she realised another company – Cherly Equipment Service – had lost four excavators worth a total of S$240,000 to the same alleged scammer.
Cherly’s CEO and managing director Tang Siang Hong said three of the machines belonged to his firm, while one was owned by a friend.
Revivify also approached a third company, Multi Ways Equipment, to rent welding machines and wheel loaders. The latter are used at construction sites to move or load materials like soil or rock.
“They seemed to know the industry well because they requested special equipment to be installed on the wheel loader, things like cameras, sensors, to accommodate the safety on site. Hence, we went on with the deal,” said a Multi Ways employee who only wanted to be known as Derrick.
A Caterpillar 966M Wheel Loader. (Photo: Multi Ways Equipment)
He said the Revivify representative initially wanted the machines delivered to Seletar North for a project, but changed the site to 29 Penjuru Lane in late May when the equipment was ready.
Derrick allowed Revivify to inspect the machines there. But when he asked when they would be sent to Seletar North, he did not receive a clear response.
“So, I went down on Jun 10 to … have a look. When I reached there, it looked like just bare land, like a dumping ground,” he added.
Derrick found just one of the wheel loaders there. Three others worth about US$200,000 remain missing and may not be in Singapore anymore, he said.
The company received a letter from Revivify after it tried to retrieve its equipment. The letter was signed off purportedly by Revivify's in-house legal team, claiming Multi Ways had breached the deal.
Multi Ways did not hear back from Revivify after that.
Moving forward, Derrick said he will be placing trackers on its equipment and conducting more background checks on hirers.
"As a rental company, every (piece of) equipment is a stream of income … so when this machine is immediately lost, this is loss of income for the company,” he lamented.
“There are many people that suffer (from this). It’s not good for business and it makes us very wary of our next few clients.”
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The affected rental companies told CNA they did not receive payment from the firm, Revivify, which also turned out to have a bogus company address.
Investigations are ongoing, said the Singapore Police Force in response to CNA’s queries.
“RAISED MY SUSPICIONS”
One construction equipment firm, New Town Engineering, said a representative from Revivify first reached out to them in May to ask about renting two excavators.
The man paid for a month’s rental in June. When New Town asked if he wanted to extend the lease, he agreed but requested a grace period to make payment, which New Town accepted.
“However, when we visited his office, we were actually told that there's no such company at this address,” said a New Town employee who only wanted to be known as Anne.
She added that they were not the first ones to show up at Revivify’s registered office at International Plaza.
“This raised my suspicions and I tried to (find out) where my excavators were. But the customer self-collected and delivered to his own site so we did not have details of the address,” she said.
“We didn’t want to alert him that we knew it might be a scam, so we contacted him and asked for the location of the excavators, which he did give. But unfortunately, there is no such address.”
Revivify was registered as a company in 2021 for port and maritime related consultancy services. When CNA visited its registered address, the office was occupied by another company.
Revivify did not respond to CNA's attempts to contact them.
According to New Town's police report, the firm eventually tracked one of its excavators down to a work site at 29 Penjuru Lane.
After roughly 10 hours of administrative tussle involving the police, New Town was able to reclaim its excavator. But the company could not locate its other machine or contact Revivify.
The site of 29 Penjuru Lane.
Anne said their losses came up to around S$55,000 to S$60,000.
She added that when she made enquiries within the industry, she realised another company – Cherly Equipment Service – had lost four excavators worth a total of S$240,000 to the same alleged scammer.
Cherly’s CEO and managing director Tang Siang Hong said three of the machines belonged to his firm, while one was owned by a friend.
ASKED FOR SPECIAL EQUIPMENT
Revivify also approached a third company, Multi Ways Equipment, to rent welding machines and wheel loaders. The latter are used at construction sites to move or load materials like soil or rock.
“They seemed to know the industry well because they requested special equipment to be installed on the wheel loader, things like cameras, sensors, to accommodate the safety on site. Hence, we went on with the deal,” said a Multi Ways employee who only wanted to be known as Derrick.
A Caterpillar 966M Wheel Loader. (Photo: Multi Ways Equipment)
He said the Revivify representative initially wanted the machines delivered to Seletar North for a project, but changed the site to 29 Penjuru Lane in late May when the equipment was ready.
Derrick allowed Revivify to inspect the machines there. But when he asked when they would be sent to Seletar North, he did not receive a clear response.
“So, I went down on Jun 10 to … have a look. When I reached there, it looked like just bare land, like a dumping ground,” he added.
Derrick found just one of the wheel loaders there. Three others worth about US$200,000 remain missing and may not be in Singapore anymore, he said.
The company received a letter from Revivify after it tried to retrieve its equipment. The letter was signed off purportedly by Revivify's in-house legal team, claiming Multi Ways had breached the deal.
Multi Ways did not hear back from Revivify after that.
Moving forward, Derrick said he will be placing trackers on its equipment and conducting more background checks on hirers.
"As a rental company, every (piece of) equipment is a stream of income … so when this machine is immediately lost, this is loss of income for the company,” he lamented.
“There are many people that suffer (from this). It’s not good for business and it makes us very wary of our next few clients.”
Continue reading...