Residents lodging a complaint to the Housing and Development Board (HDB) about a neighbour blasting music through the night or smoke reaching their flat is quite common.
However, a resident was surprised to receive a call from an alleged HDB officer regarding an anonymous complaint about her dogs’ incessant barking, because she didn’t have dogs.
Carlin Lee took to Facebook page Complaint Singapore on Sunday (July 17) to ask for advice from the community after receiving two calls from HDB.
According to the caller, HDB received an anonymous complaint from her neighbour regarding her “dogs who bark all day long.”
“I don’t have dogs. I only have two kids. If you like, please send someone to come and check my place,” said Ms Lee to the caller.
After the first call last month, the caller said they trusted her and would not be coming over to check, as their job was to just inform her of the matter.
However, the second call made Ms Lee think a personal visit was needed to get to the bottom of the issue.
Netizens commented on her post, providing some options, such as suggesting to the caller to report the incident to the police. “Get police to check since they cannot understand simple English and too lazy to take action,” said Facebook user Yue Tu.
Meanwhile, Facebook user Bernie Ong said this could be a modus operandi by fraudsters. “A friend had a recent similar encounter supposedly from HDB. Sounds like a potential fraudster trying to fish for information. She reported to the HDB, who were clueless.”
Facebook user LS Chen was equally concerned. “How did the HDB staff get your phone number? Seems odd. Usually, government agencies would send a hardcopy notice rather than doing a phone call.”
“If you had taken down the name of the caller, you could feedback the call to HDB (only if you feel extremely free because they won’t be bothered to respond anyway),” advised Facebook user Dickens Cider.
“I’d suggest that you see this as a joke and laugh it off. If they call the second time, press the record button at any time and use it as evidence if they were to take any action against you,” he added. /TISG