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For the love of cats and dogs Page 10
A NAME YOU CAN TRUST! Thursday, July 7, 2016
Vol 45, No 26
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Astronomer reaches new heights
Eric Koh is on fire selling East Auckland.
– see page 5
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STAR GAZING: Amateur astronomer Jennie McCormick has been recognised by her peers.
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By NICK KRAUSE
L
oas Toung climbs the stairs slowly but steadily. Arthritis has taken its toll. She has a pronounced limp, even with two titanium knees. If it bothers her she doesn’t show it. Loas is nearly 84. She is intelligent and speaks with an endearing lilt and could be your gran. But she is lonely. Her husband Chien died in 2001. He was 18 years older, she 46 and he 64 when they married. Last week the Highland Park woman was meant to be re-married to a man she’d never met and purporting to be more than 20 years her junior. She fell for Steve, a man with no surname, no contact phone number that worked, and no address
that seemed to be kosher. Love, it has been said, is blind, as is trust. Loas sheepishly admits she has been royally scammed, ripped off to the tune of almost $8000. She’s another victim of the socalled sweetheart scam and is annoyed she has been fooled. But she readily admits she still takes calls from this character ‘Steve’, one the night before our interview. “I first met Steve in March through a dating site called MeetMe,” she says. “His profile was on the site and, being curious, I clicked into it. He told me he was a Telecom site engineer. We quickly became friends and, after a week or so, his first appeal for funds came.” But Loas didn’t see what was
LOAS TOUNG
happening. She’s a Christian and accepted the appeal for so much money as genuine. “He needed $3000 to pay his workers in a remote part of the
jungle in Malaysia but couldn’t get the money from the main office in KL (Kuala Lumpur). I agreed to send an overseas bank draft to him,” says Loas. “Several weeks later he said he was in dire straits because he hadn’t realised that his visa had expired, so was not allowed to leave the country until it was renewed. “He had run out of funds so was stuck at KL Airport with nothing to eat for four days and was sick and desperate. Could I please send $4500? This I managed to do.” She was truly hooked. “By this time we had established quite a relationship, verging on the romantic. We learned about each other’s lives,” says Loas. ➤ Turn to Page 13
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