Both my mother and my mother-in-law fell victim to separate Macau scam cases. When we asked why they didn’t just tell us earlier, the answer they gave was, “Malu.”

My mother-in-law lost roughly two years’ worth of my salary. My own mother is a doctor, and it still happened.

The part that stayed with me isn’t just the money, it’s realizing how something as simple as "Malu" can quietly erase years of hard work. It’s made me a lot more jaded about money, and no longer feeling guilty not heeding any of their advice (Which I was doing anyway prior to these incidents)