Update Jun. 18, 2014, 12pm: The Online Citizen's article has reappeared on its website. The updated post included the lawyer's letter to blogger Grace Tan.

Ok, let's start from the top.

Some time in late 2013, an entity that calls itself "Singapore Company Register" emailed or sent physical letters to companies in Singapore requesting them to verify their company details with it.

The letters they sent were designed to look like official letters sent by the authorities. Once verified, the companies who registered with Singapore Company Register have to pay an annual $490 subscription fee.

The letter or email also claims that companies will have their information deleted from the "Singaporean Company Register database" within a week of the date of the notice, if they failed to register.

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Nov. 19, 2013

This prompted the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) to issue an alert against "Singapore Company Register", saying it has no links whatsoever to that company, and is investigating the matter.

It has also issued public alerts on its corporate website and Facebook page, as well as through its news alert email system.

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And here's the zinger:

The Straits Times (ST) reported the news with this headline: "ACRA warns of fake entity asking companies to verify their details"

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Nowhere in ACRA's press statement was there any mention of "fake entity".

Take note of this fact as it will come into play later on.

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Jan. 24, 2014

It was reported that ACRA brought 78 charges against Data Register for misleading companies into giving information.

An example of a Data Register letterhead with a Lion Head symbol. (Source)

By this time, Company Register Pte Ltd had changed its name to Data Register Pte Ltd.

Both companies have the same company registration number: 201327463M.

Source: BizFile

In the news report, it mentioned that ACRA received over two thousand queries from members of the public in relation to the emails and letters companies had received from Data Register.

In those correspondences, Data Register requested companies to verify their company details with it through its website, causing members of the public to mistakenly assume that Data Register was linked to ACRA and that they were obliged to provide the requested information.

After Data Register sought payment for subscription services from some companies, ACRA again received queries asking whether such payment had to be made.

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Jun. 9, 2014

A blogger, Grace Tan, published a blog post titled "Singapore Company Register - Business Owner BEWARE!".

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Jun. 12, 2014

ACRA sent out another statement that it was not associated nor corresponded with an entity called Company Register.

ACRA clarified that members of public should note that the statutory duty to file and provide business information under the Companies Act is owed only to ACRA, the national regulator of business entities and public accountants in Singapore.

"Companies that need to file or update their records with ACRA, should do so only through BizFile, ACRA's online filing and information retrieval system, at www.bizfile.gov.sg," the authority added.

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Jun. 16, 2014

Tan, the blogger, received a letter from law firm Rodyk & Davidson demanding the removal of a blog post and a request for a public apology after she wrote about receiving a letter from Data Register and how it "is a directory site trying to get companies to register with it for S$490 per year to get listed on the site".

The lawyer's letter stated that Tan's statements in her blog was defamatory as she suggested that Data Register "is a fake entity and threatens recipients of its letters".

She had used the "fake entity" description found in the ST article to describe Data Register.

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Jun. 17, 2014

In the afternoon, The Online Citizen wrote a post about the blogger Grace Tan receiving a lawyer's letter of demand from Company Register and even shared the post via Facebook.

Source: TOC Facebook

However, both the article and the FB post have since been removed.

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Tan updated her post, stating that ACRA has informed her that the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) is now investigating the company.

She has also made a police report and claimed that she had written to several Members of Parliament, including the Prime Minister of Singapore.

Top photo from here

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