A restaurant owner is sounding the alarm on an alleged food delivery scam after she was left with almost $300 worth of food undelivered — and unpaid for. Stomper Evon, who operates Forture Seafood Steam Boat at Bukit Timah Road, said she received a pre-order for collection at 7pm on May 16. “We have a lot of customers calling for pre-order or bulk orders, and this (operates on) pure trust,” Evon told Stomp over the phone.   When she received a call from a man named B, she said the restaurant “took the order as normal”. B ordered an array of dishes such as grouper fish, cereal prawns, Mongolian style beef and pork ribs, which amounted to $298.   B ordered many items, including a fish that cost more than $90. B then called at around 7.15pm to request a delivery to his home instead, claiming that his car had broken down and he was unable to drive to the restaurant. Evon said she agreed to it as the restaurant was less than a five-minute drive away from the destination that B had provided, which was at the Floridian, a condominium along Bukit Timah Road. “He said he had transferred money to his father, so his father would be paying us,” the Stomper added. Evon had no problems with this, as there were previous instances where the restaurant collected payment upon delivery. ‘Could not pass the guardhouse’ However, Evon’s troubles began when she arrived at the condominium.   “When I reached there, the security guard said he needed to check as the unit in question has had a few issues with delivery,” Evon said. The Stomper was told that there had been at least two or three occasions that food delivery riders have turned up at the condominium, even though the unit’s occupants had not ordered food. “I called the person and he insisted that his father was waiting for the food,” Evon recounted. “I demanded that he paid me via PayNow immediately, but he refused and said he had transferred his father the money.” Based on a WhatsApp text chain seen by Stomp, Evon had asked B to make payment minutes before 8pm. However, B continued to insist that he had transferred the money to his father for payment upon delivery. “Eventually, I had no choice but to make a police report,” the restaurant owner lamented. By sharing her experience with Stomp, Evon hopes that the public — especially food and beverage businesses in the Bukit Timah area — will be more aware of the alleged scam. “I believe he will do it again,” she said. Stomp understands that the condominium has explicit instructions from residents of the said unit to reject all food deliveries unless otherwise specified. As of June 3, Evon has not heard from B or received any payment for the order. In response to a Stomp query, the police confirmed that a report was lodged.

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WASHINGTON: The US Trade Representative on Tuesday (Jun 2) proposed new duties targeting 60 economies for alleged failures to act against forced labour, as the Trump administration seeks to rebuild its tariff agenda following legal setbacks. The proposed tariffs range from 10 per cent to 12.5 per cent, according to a government filing, and they will undergo a public comment period before a final decision is made. The move comes months after Washington launched investigations into trading partners including China, Australia, the European Union, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and the Philippines. The probes looked into whether they took action against the import of goods made with forced labour, and if this impacted US commerce.   On Tuesday, the USTR said that 54 of the economies "failed to impose and effectively enforce a forced labour import prohibition". This group includes China, Vietnam, Taiwan and the United Kingdom. Six other economies - Canada, Ecuador, the EU, Indonesia, Mexico and Pakistan - were deemed not to have effectively enforced such prohibitions. "The failure of our most important trading partners to address the importation of goods made with forced labour is unacceptable," USTR Jamieson Greer said in a statement. "This creates a dynamic where American workers are forced to compete globally on an unlevel playing field," he added. But the proposed tariffs come with various exemptions such as beef, coffee and certain fruits and nuts. Goods from Canada and Mexico that comply with a North American free trade pact will also be exempt - as will certain textiles and apparel. The public is invited to provide written comments by Jul 6, and the USTR will subsequently hold hearings. After the Supreme Court struck down a swath of President Donald Trump's tariffs in February, US officials launched the new trade probes as steps toward imposing more lasting duties. Apart from the investigations on forced labour, the US trade envoy also started probes on excess industrial capacity. Source: AFP/dy

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