Minister in the Prime Minister's Office S. Iswaran posted on Facebook lauding Singaporeans for speaking up against errant sales tactics in Sim Lim Square as well as praising those that crowd-funded a replacement phone for the Vietnamese tourist who was scammed.

He said that some people have 'gone too far' and called for Singaporeans to 'exercise restraint and do not take matters into your own hands. Let due process take its course.'

Check out his post in full:

However, it seemed that 'Let due process take its course' did not sit well with some netizens.

Many of the comments point to the fact that shady sales tactics have been employed by rogue shops for many years. The police and CASE have been called in on multiple occasions but these shops still operated as usual.

It would seem that the due process over the years did not deter these unscrupulous retailers.

Case in point was Mobile Air - they were in the news previously for charging a woman $16,000 for a warranty package on 35 iPhones and for giving 18 kg worth of coins in refund. That did not stop them from charging Vietnamese tourist Pham Van Thoai $1,500 for a warranty package - the case that broke the camel's back. In fact, Mobile Air was $400 richer from that incident.

It was forced to close down only after troll Facebook page SMRT Ltd (Feedback) released his personal details online.

Netizens were unhappy that it is only now that the authorities are thinking of ways to deal with the problem after the issue gained significant traction online and has even spread to news outlets in Vietnam and China.

However, it's a welcome change that the authorities are finally looking to clamp down on errant retailers. An option is to provide more 'bite' to consumer watchdog like CASE.

Let's start by ensuring Jover Chew returns the $400 that he owe Pham.

Top photo from Iswaran@West Coast Facebook page

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