‘Weird, childish’ occasions and dangerous espresso: How a Singaporean sniffed out the Fun Coffee funding rip-off

SINGAPORE – His curiosity was piqued when a neighbour informed him in 2025 concerning the returns Fun Coffee was giving for investments, however Bryan Ho, who works in finance, discovered quite a lot of pink flags.

Ho, 40, stated the corporate’s web site was poorly achieved and he couldn’t discover particulars about its headquarters in Vietnam.

On its web site, the corporate claimed to be based mostly in Phu Quoc, Vietnam, with belongings of greater than US$1 billion (S$1.28 billion) and a group of greater than 5,000. It marketed annual returns of between 197 per cent and 278 per cent, reported South China Morning Post.

Ho stated that regardless of his suspicions, he attended a Fun Coffee occasion on Oct 20, 2025, at Kent Ridge. The organisers had promised a $50 money reward for turning up.

Participants have been instructed by an individual named “Stella” over textual content to fulfill at Kent Ridge MRT station and have been later taken to a close-by open area.

Ho stated about 10 to 12 individuals, who have been largely seniors, turned up for the occasion.

He stated the group was requested to do “very primary school activities”, corresponding to folding paper planes and relay races.

“It was very weird, childish and basic,” he stated, including that the organisers have been filming movies and taking pictures which have been later posted on their TikTook channel. The pictures have since been taken down.

Ho was proper to be suspicious.

First got here the information that the authorities in Hong Kong and Macau had arrested eight individuals for his or her alleged hyperlinks to the scheme, which noticed 200 individuals lose practically HK$100 million (S$16.3 million).

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

Ho stated among the organisers of the occasion he attended have been micro-influencers who had been actively selling Fun Coffee on-line.

At the tip of the occasion, he was given some espresso samples and $60 in money, and {a magazine} which described the corporate’s tasks.

“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 determined to go to the store at 692 Geylang Road. Three male employees members have been 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 stated.

One of the employees members handed Ho some espresso samples, which he tried at residence.

He stated: “The coffee was 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 confirmed the store is now occupied by a durian vendor.

Weeks after he attended the occasion, Ho was requested to obtain an app by scanning a QR code. He was informed to bypass his cellphone’s safety features to obtain the app.

To make investments, customers needed to set up an app and switch Tether (USDT), a cryptocurrency pegged to the US greenback, into pockets addresses offered by way of the app.

Ho stated: “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 girl in Singapore misplaced $400,000 after investing by way of an app, which went offline on July 20.

Ho stated he didn’t make investments any cash or use the app. He made a police report in 2025, and warned his family and friends to not put money into the scheme.

In a press release on Aug 8, police cautioned members of the general public in opposition to making any additional funds or transfers to the scheme, even when they’re approached by individuals claiming to symbolize the enterprise or by way of requests made by way of the Fun Coffee app.

Police stated the general public also needs to contemplate it a pink flag when a cost request is made by way of a personal PayNow QR code, a private cell quantity or an abroad account.