Rounding up top investing articles from around the web, including articles shared on Twitter.
Scam victims in S’pore lost $385.6m in first half of 2024 as number of cases hits high of 26,587 (Straits Times)
The scams situation here worsened as the number of cases increased by 16.3 per cent, with victims losing a record high of over $385.6 million in the first six months of 2024.
At the media briefing, Minister of State for Home Affairs Sun Xueling said these figures were worrying.
She said: “There are a large number of scam cases which are attributed to self-effected transfers from victims, and this is concerning. Because this shows many of the victims were actually socially manipulated into transferring their monies into scam accounts.”
Ms Sun said of particular concern were investment and government officials impersonation scams.
While the 3,330 cases of investment scams made up only 12.5 per cent of the total number of scam cases in the first half of 2024, victims lost $133.4 million, the highest amount lost of all scams.
This averages out to about $40,000 lost by victims in each case of investment scam.
Maximum CPF daily withdrawal limit to be lowered from $200k to $50k as anti-scam measure (Straitgs Times)
From Sept 25, the maximum amount of CPF money that can be withdrawn per day will be lowered to protect people from scams.
The Central Provident Fund Board (CPFB) on Aug 22 said it will reduce the daily withdrawal limit from $200,000 to $50,000, as an anti-scam measure.
The Board had set a default daily withdrawal limit of $2,000 in November 2023, with CPF members needing to access the CPF website to raise the limit to $200,000.
This applied to online CPF withdrawals by CPF members aged 55 and above.
Currently, CPF members can adjust the limit to any amount from $0 to $200,000, subject to enhanced authentication measures and a 12-hour cooling period so they can react in the event of unauthorised adjustments.
They can also disable online withdrawals by activating the CPF Withdrawal Lock, which instantly sets the limit to $0.
CPFB advised members who intend to make large withdrawals to plan in advance, and those who intend to withdraw more than $50,000 to plan to make the withdrawals online over multiple days.
War on salt, sauces, instant noodles, cooking oil: These will have A to D grades like beverages (Straits Times)
Such products will be graded A to D – with D being the least healthy choice, having the highest levels of sodium and/or saturated fat, among other possible nutrients.
This follows the successful use of the mandatory Nutri-Grade label on pre-packaged and freshly prepared beverages. Drinks that exceed a threshold of sweetness are graded C and D, and there are also prohibitions on advertising such beverages that are grade D.
Platform workers to be fully covered in first year of higher CPF payments in boost to support scheme (Straits Times)
ounger platform workers who will need to pay more CPF contributions, and others who opt in to do so, will have these contributions fully paid for in the first year.
This is among enhancements to the Platform Workers CPF Transition Support (PCTS) scheme announced on Aug 22 aimed at easing workers’ concerns about their take-home pay.
All broadband and TV services fully restored after Aug 20 outage: StarHub (Straits Times)
StarHub users in several areas of Singapore experienced connectivity issues for hours on the evening of Aug 20. The outage, which was progressively resolved after 9pm, stemmed from problems with StarHub’s domain name system (DNS) servers.
Microsoft will release controversial Windows Recall AI search feature to testers in October (CNBC)
Microsoft said Wednesday it will release its controversial Recall artificial intelligence search feature for Windows users to test beginning in October.
Recall takes screenshots of activity on screen so people can search for information they saw earlier. Security researchers quickly expressed concerns about the risks of Windows automatically capturing images, without users opting in. Researchers released open-source software showing how personal information might become easily accessible to attackers. Microsoft responded in June and said Recall would be turned off by default. It also committed to security enhancements for the feature.
Five bodies recovered in wreckage of superyacht that sank off Sicily (CNBC)
- Five bodies have been recovered from the wreck of the superyacht that sank in a storm early Monday morning, according to NBC News and Sky News.
- British technology entrepreneur Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah, Morgan Stanley International Chair Jonathan Bloomer and his wife Judy Bloomer, and Clifford Chance lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife Neda Morvillo were all reported missing after a luxury yacht they were on board sank.
- The Italian Coast Guard on Tuesday confirmed to Sky News that a person who was confirmed dead earlier this week was Recaldo Thomas, a Canadian-Antiguan chef.
China’s state media slams U.S. over Biden nuclear strategy report (CNBC)
- China’s state media and foreign ministry quickly moved to criticize Washington, after the New York Times reported that U.S. President Joe Biden had reoriented the U.S.′ nuclear strategic plan to focus on Beijing’s rapid expansion of its nuclear arsenal.
- The White House said that the nuclear strategic plan was not in response to a single country or threat.
India walks a diplomatic tightrope, making friends with Ukraine while ally Russia watches on (CNBC)
- Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Ukraine on Friday is likely to be closely watched by New Delhi’s long-standing ally, Russia.
- The trip comes as India looks to navigate tricky alliances with both Russia and the West.
- India is one of the few countries that has robust trading and diplomatic relations with both sides in the war that has been waging in Ukraine since Russia’s February 2022 invasion.
- Modi’s trip to Kyiv is the first such engagement undertaken by an Indian head of state in over 30 years.
‘The World’ is a luxury ship that travels the world full time — here’s how much an apartment on it costs (CNBC)
The World has 165 privately owned apartments, ranging from 290-square-foot studios to 3,240-square-foot four-bedroom residences.
Minarik and his wife bought their apartment in 2020 with plans to spend one to two months a year on the ship. However, he said, they now spend up to half of the year on board.
Itineraries change yearly, Wong said. The schedule for 2026 has been finalized, he said, and includes stops in Antarctica, French Polynesia and Easter Island, the latter of which he called “one of the most sought-after locations in the world.”
The World docks in around 100 ports per year, stopping for two to five days, rather than a few hours.
Purchase prices for residences range from $2.4 million to $15 million — a figure which doesn’t include quarterly maintenance fees, which can be around 10% of the purchase price annually.
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