YOU have to register first before you do business in Singapore.

This was what seven Sri Lankans were told by an agent from their country.

They had come to Singapore recently hoping to secure a business deal through the agent.

They felt safe as they were in a government building.

But this was probably what the agent wanted them to think.

He joined a queue and, before they realised it, vanished with their money.

The Sri Lanka High Commissioner to Singapore, Mr Shehan Ratnavale, 46, related this incident to The New Paper yesterday.

Such cases have prompted a statement to the Sri Lankan media. In it, the High Commission warned the Sri Lankan public that unscrupulous recruitment agents there were collecting large sums of money from unsuspecting people with the promise of getting them jobs and places in educational institutions here.

The statement said many Sri Lankans had been abandoned here, without food or lodging.

The High Commission advised people to check the authenticity of these agents before making any arrangements to come to Singapore.

One Sri Lankan newspaper, the Sunday Observer, posted the statement online on Sunday.

Mr Ratnavale said the problem was not at the Singapore end, although there was one case involving a Singapore employment agent.

He said that the case was being investigated by the authorities here.

An earlier case involved 15 students who were brought here by an agent in Sri Lanka.

Mr Ratnavale said: 'He housed them somewhere. He took their money and promised them places in educational institutions. But he did not live up to his promises and they were not able to study here.

'They complained to the High Commission and have returned to Sri Lanka.

'The agent was remanded here for three months and has been forcefully repatriated to Sri Lanka.'

The victims in the MOM building incident were here to buy electronic items, Mr Ratnavale said.

'He (the agent) misled them on Singapore's regulations, that there had to be a registration process before they could do business here.

'He took their money at Changi Airport and took them to the MOM building and pretended this was part of the registration process.

'He told them to take a seat and he joined a queue. He stood there for a while, then vanished.'

When The New Paper spoke to Mr Ratnavale later on the phone, he told us that the police had just called his office to inform him of two more victims.

He said his office was now looking for temporary lodging for them.

Mr Ratnavale said in these scams, each victim paid the agent between 200,000 ($2,580) and 500,000 Sri Lankan rupees to come here.

He said that in the MOM building case, the seven men were so distraught they wanted to return home immediately.

But he said he managed to convince them to stay on for another day to give police statements and to provide descriptions of the agent to the police.

He said the High Commission provided them with temporary accommodation and got the airline to reschedule their flight.

The men were later taken in the High Commission's official car to Changi Airport.

He said: 'They were terribly dejected but I impressed upon them the need to stay on to prevent this from happening to other people in Sri Lanka.'