SINGAPORE: Disappointed with the way their meet-up turned out, a man decried on social media how his old friend tried to sell him insurance rather than “catching up.”
“I thought I was happy to meet him again after all these days. We went through poly and NS but we slowly drifted away after we started working. Then out of the blue while I was busy with work, he called me and exclaimed that he missed me and wanted to catch up,” user u/maggicheese wrote on subreddit r/SingaporeRaw on Saturday (Jan 20).
Naturally, he was delighted to accept his invitation. However, he said that 15 minutes into their meeting, his friend suddenly started to talk about wealth management, health and sickness, and other topics related to finances.
It turned out that his friend was subtly trying to sell him insurance and financial packages.
“I was quite sad to learn about his true motive. His invitation to me for a get-together turned out to be a sales ploy,” the man added.
He said that had his friend told him about this in advance, he would have declined to meet up and wouldn’t have wasted his time.
“He didn’t call me because he miss our relationship but rather he can exploit it for his own gain. I felt hurted afterwards but I turned him down and decided not to call him anymore.”
After his friend found out that he couldn’t sell anything to him, his friend stopped calling him.
“Such is a world of superficial friendship with shallow relationship,” he added at the end.
SG Redditors: ‘Always be wary of “friends” who suddenly appeared after many years of no contact’
In the comments section of the post, several Singaporean redditors advised that he should be cautious of his old friends who suddenly reach out to him after years of no communication.
One commented, “Always be wary of “friends” who suddenly appeared after many years of no contact. Normally they have something they want from you. Either sell insurance, MLM, borrow money or scam.”
While another said, “If he didn’t miss you for ten years, you should have been suspicious about his motives contacting you after all this time. Learn your lesson and move on. Other than that time, you haven’t lost anything and gained some wisdom.”
Another user also shared his disappointment, saying that it is getting harder and harder to find people these days who will invite you out for coffee simply for the purpose of having coffee together.
“There’s always a play. If it’s not insurance it’s some other thing, mlm, borrow money, etc. Sad to say it’s rare to find people who jio you lim kopi just for kopi’s sake,” one Redditor said.
Is it wise to purchase life insurance from your friend?
While your friend may have approached you with the best of intentions, experts say that it would be wise to turn down his offer because, for one, he is highly unlikely to be an expert in finances.
The odds that it’s his first time entering the world of finance are very high. And if this is the case, the training he got from the company was more likely to be skewed towards how to sell insurance than in-depth financial planning.
You may have to consider that your old friend may not be someone who has been trained to look over your complete financial record, evaluate all of your options, and offer unbiased advice based on what is best for you.
However, this does not make him a villain. He is simply not in a position to provide you with objective financial advice. You can be honest and politely turn down his offer during your conversation.
Also, if you really cherish the time you spent together in the past, you can invite him for coffee next time instead. And this time, you can really ask him or her how their life has been.