SINGAPORE – His curiosity piqued when a neighbour told him in 2025 about the returns Fun Coffee was giving for investments, but Bryan Ho, who works in finance, found a number of red flags.

Ho, 40, said the company’s website was poorly done and he could not find details about its headquarters in Vietnam.

On its website, the company claimed to be based in Phu Quoc, Vietnam, with assets of more than US$1 billion (S$1.28 billion) and a team of more than 5,000.

It advertised annual returns of between 197 and 278 per cent, reported South China Morning Post.

Ho said that despite his suspicions, he attended a Fun Coffee event on Oct 20, 2025, at Kent Ridge. The organisers had promised a $50 cash reward for turning up.

Participants were instructed by a person named “Stella” over text to meet at Kent Ridge MRT and were later brought to a nearby open field.

Ho said about 10 to 12 people, who were mostly seniors, turned up for the event.

He said the group was asked to do “very primary school activities”, such as folding paper planes and relay races.

“It was very weird, childish and basic,” he said, adding that the organisers were filming videos and taking photos which were later posted on their TikTok channel. The images have since been taken down.

Ho was right to be suspicious.

First came the news that the authorities in Hong Kong and Macau had arrested eight people for their alleged links to the scheme, which saw 200 people lose nearly HK$100 million (S$16.3 million).

Then police in Singapore arrested a 49-year-old woman linked to an ongoing police investigation involving Fun Coffee on Aug 6. She had actively promoted the investment scheme and recruited others to join.

Ho said some of the organisers of the event he attended were micro-influencers who had been actively promoting Fun Coffee online.

At the end of the event, he was given some coffee samples and $60 in cash, and a magazine which described the company’s projects.

“It was badly written, with AI-generated images. The English text was directly translated from Chinese and didn’t make sense.

“It contained exaggerated claims about how (the company) made money investing in Amazon, smart homes and telemedicine,” he added.

On Oct 28, 2025, Ho decided to visit the shop at 692 Geylang Road. Three male staff members were inside.

“There was no real coffee counter. It was just a coffee machine at the corner, a hot water kettle and some coffee products displayed on the wall,” he said.

One of the staff members handed Ho some coffee samples, which he tried at home.

He said: “The coffee claimed to have Lingzhi in it, but tasted like cheap coffee. There was no way this coffee was going to take off because it was horrible.”

Checks by The Straits Times on Aug 9 showed the shop is now occupied by a durian seller.

Weeks after he attended the event, Ho was asked to download an app by scanning a QR code. He was told to bypass his phone’s security features to download the app.

To invest, users had to install an app and transfer Tether (USDT), a cryptocurrency pegged to the US dollar, into wallet addresses provided through the app.

Ho said: “The investors were told they would get back more returns if they put in more money. That’s why some people put in hundreds of thousands.”

A 48-year-old woman in Singapore lost $400,000 after investing through an app, which went offline on July 20.

Ho said he did not invest any money or use the app. He made a police report in 2025, and warned his friends and family not to invest in the scheme.

In a statement on Aug 8, police cautioned members of the public against making any further payments or transfers to the scheme, even if they are approached by people claiming to represent the business or through requests made via the Fun Coffee app.

Police said the public should also consider it a red flag when a payment request is made via a private PayNow QR code, a personal mobile number or an overseas account.