THE payment was in gold, but that soon turned cold.
Doctors here reportedly found this out the hard way after they received gold jewellery or gold bars as payment from a couple claiming to be Cambodian refugees.
The gold turned out to be fake.
In a crime alert sent to the Singapore Medical Association (SMA) on Thursday, the police warned doctors of the ruse.
The advisory said: 'This letter serves to alert you on a recent spate of cheating cases at clinics where a couple would use fake gold jewellery or gold bars to pass off as genuine ones as payment in lieu of cash for consultation and medicine.
'The culprits would even exchange the fake gold items for money in a separate transaction with the doctor.'
The SMA confirmed it had received the police advisory.
Police spokesman Lim Tung Li said that there had been three such cases this year.
The total amount cheated was about $8,000, the police said.
The advisory described the suspects as a couple in their early 40s.
The man was said to be 1.6m tall, has dark complexion, short black hair and is of medium build.
The woman, who has a dark complexion and shoulder-length hair, is plump and between 1.49m and 1.6m tall.
The advisory said the couple are believed to be foreigners and would claim to be tourists or refugees from Cambodia, in an apparent bid to gain sympathy.
After seeing the doctor, they would claim that they didn't have money to pay the bill.
Then they would offer to use gold bars or jewellery in place of cash.
In some cases, the couple said they needed money to buy medical supplies for their family. They also said they were going to Sydney on a three-month sea voyage.
The couple would even accompany clinic staff members to take the gold items to pawnshops to prove their gold was real.
However, the advisory noted, that it was not known how the doctors ended up with fake gold when the gold was certified as genuine by pawnshop staff members.
It cannot be determined if the couple somehow managed to swop the real gold with fake gold after checks by the pawnshops.
Private clinic doctor Chan Miow Swan thought the gold ruse was just a rumour when she heard about it from another doctor on Friday.
She does not know any affected doctor or clinic.
Dr Chan, who has 10 years' medical experience and has been in private practice for the past four years, said: 'I was surprised that there are patients who would offer to pay in kind rather than in cash.
PRESCRIBE AND FORGET
'For me, if patients don't have money to settle the bill, I'll just prescribe them medicine for free and forget about it.
What can I do if they can't pay? I don't think I would have accepted any payment in gold.'
The police have advised doctors that they should accept only cash or card payment.
If patients offer to pay in gold, doctors 'may cite difficulties in liquidating the jewellery'.
The advisory wrote: 'Do not exchange a large sum of money for the purported gold items in return for consultation given or even out of goodwill.
'Insist that the subject (patient) pawn the gold items at a pawnshop and make payment thereafter. Otherwise, the loss incurred could be substantial if the gold turned out to be fake.'
Clinics were also strongly advised to install closed-circuit televisions.
source:
http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/news/st...43483,00.html?
DOCS TAKEN IN BY FAKE GOLD SCAM 
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