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1. Recently I came across allegations that used car sellers disabling warning lights to cheat potential buyers. 2. Apparently if the seller refreshes the ecu, the warning lights will temporarily go into 'sleep mode' and not indicate any existing fault for a few hours, or a day or so, during test drives!!! 3. The warning lights will only show up a few days after the unsuspecting buyer buys the car. Sometimes the faults are costly to repair! By then, the buyer can only suck thumb. 4. Some mechanics told me such 'hidden' faults can actually be diagnosed with the plug-in diagnostic instrument during the vehicle evaluation before the purchase. I am not sure how many sellers will allow the potential buyer to do the diagnosis, or which evaluation centre eg AA, VICOM, provides such a service in their evaluation? Do feel free to share your experience / knowledge on the above here. Thank you. PS -- Seasoned, discerning buyers of used expensive, sophisticated cars may know better ways to avoid being cheated by such sellers.

SINGAPORE: There is an industry wide move by banks in Singapore to disable magnetic stripe on all credit and debit cards. This means those cards can no longer be used for overseas retail purchases outside of Singapore. The move is believed to be led by the Association of Banks in Singapore (ABS). However when contacted, an ABS spokesperson declined comment and said it will make an announcement on July 30. In response to queries from Channel NewsAsia, some banks said they are ready to join the industry in the move. HSBC said it plans to implement the disabling of the magnetic strips within the month of August. HSBC added that it will exempt customers and auto-enrol their credit and debit cards for overseas use if, according to its records, they have a history of overseas use of their cards, or have an overseas address, so that they can enjoy greater convenience without the need to enrol their cards each time they travel. Meanwhile, DBS said the magnetic stripe on all DBS and POSB cards will be disabled for overseas use starting September 22, 2013. DBS added that this is part of its continuous efforts to enhance card security. Customers can allow or disallow overseas magnetic stripe transactions for both overseas ATMs and point-of-sale terminals at any DBS/POSB ATM and branch or internet banking. - CNA/fa http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singap...ble/760010.html DAFUQ?!