SINGAPORE — Great Eastern, which has come under fire on Facebook over an alleged attempt by one of its “insurance advisor” to collect personal data for marketing under the pretext of collecting donations, responded to media queries on Wednesday (March 1) to say it is investigating the incident.

Its spokesman said its “distribution representative” was volunteering his time under the company’s corporate social responsibility programme to collect donations from the public for a registered charity supporting needy children and the elderly. There was “no intention to mislead”.

She added the company has “strict guidelines on personal data collection and usage” and will take stern action if the guidelines have been breached.

On Monday, Facebook user Effendi Baba complained of an encounter with a Great Eastern insurance agent who claimed to be soliciting donations for orphans. On the pretext of issuing him a receipt for his donation, the agent tried to trick him into signing a consent form to allow Great Eastern to “contact (him) in any form of mailer or communication medium”.

While he did not mind insurance agents soliciting for business, he said not telling the truth was unacceptable. The man was trying to get him to “sign away (his) rights under the pretext of issuing (him) a donation form”.

And when confronted and asked to give his agent number, issued by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, he returned the donation and walked away. He also said “he has the (right) to protect his identity as much as (Effendi has).”

The post was shared more than 700 times. 

The Great Eastern spokesman said when the complaint was forwarded to the company on Monday morning, and it had apologised to Effendi the same morning, adding it does not condone such behaviour and will be investigating the incident.