Ripped off by a private school - owner ecaped with money

[LuXingRen]

I signed up for a course with a private school a few months ago. They promised me to have finished two courses by the end of this year. I paid a large amount of money and I also signed up for a student visa. They mishandled my documents, signed me up for the wrong course with the ICA, and as time went by, they could never come up with an exact date for the beginning of the courses I paid for. The whole institute was a horrible mess, people left one by one because they did not receive their salaries.
Now one of the famous private schools took over this place, saying they did not know what was going on, but they are known to be friends with the previous owners. Most of the students signed up for simple courses, but some of us were made to pay for courses that gives them a certificate - the school did not have the money to invite teachers and get these courses started.
They were certified by CASETRUST and some other institutes. And they say there is no chane for us to get our money back, because the people responsible ran away, and the new owners think it is not their problem.
By this time 4 people went to the police to file a report. I wonder what's next.

[Nath21]

If you paid for the course through a company the new owners are liable as long as you have proof of payment, if you however paid the individual who just sold the business to another individual outside of a company structure you just took a course it was called getting ripped off and you passed with flying colours.

Four choices:
litigation (commercial) action through small claims or courts. As I said if it wasnt paid to company and you have no proof you have no hope;
fraud (criminal) report to police this has little chance of money and maybe a small chance of fraud not sure what cops here are like;
revenge sweet but not good for karma; or
do nothing and suck it up and vent on blogs.

[carteki]

do nothing and suck it up and vent on blogs.

There is a 5th option - contact the current owners and let the know that you will post your experience and name names and see if that doesn't get any response from them. If their reputation is important to them they will listen. Don't post / threaten anything that is untrue as that will come back to haunt you.

[Nath21]

see point three revenge and probably dangerous in singapore considering libel law here.

[jpatokal]

There is a 5th option - contact the current owners and let the know that you will post your experience and name names and see if that doesn't get any response from them. If their reputation is important to them they will listen. Don't post / threaten anything that is untrue as that will come back to haunt you.

I wouldn't recommend this. Instead, file a case in the Small Claims Tribunal, which will get their attention much more effectively without putting you at risk of a possible libel/defamation suit. However, please make sure you have documentation to back up your case: receipts of your payments, copies of any communications from them, etc.

[road.not.taken]

Now one of the famous private schools took over this place, saying they did not know what was going on

It is their job and obligation to know what was going on. I would file a claim.

[Bolty]

I agree with jpatokal : File a claim.....and let the legalities take its course.

Consumer law here is one of the worst I've seen. Case is practically useless and simply having a Casetrust certified does not mean much. (For an apparent developed country, service & consumer law are practically non-existent)

This is very similar to the fake RMIT degrees handed out by a dodgy institute....and they ripped a lot of poor students.

Reality is that you will not be able to do much. Unfortunately that's how it works here.