Pham Van Thoai, the Vietnamese tourist who was cheated when buying an iPhone 6 at a store in Singapore, told a newspaper that he has received $550 as support from a Singaporean businessman, and will not receive any further assistance.

Thoai, 28, was asked by Mobile Air Pte Ltd in Sim Lim Square to sign some worded invoice in English, a language Thoai barely understands. He thus was forced to pay an additional S$1,500 for a 1-year warranty. The poor tourist then went down on his knees, begging the store to return him the money but failed. He eventually left the shop with S$550 poorer, and with no Iphone 6.

Thoai now tells a Chinese-language Singaporean newspaper Lianhe Zaobao that he has bought a new iPhone 6 with the money he received from the businessman.

"I've been cheated $550, so I'll only get $550 from a kind person, and I will receive no more. I am grateful for your kindness, but I just want to get the right amount I lost," Thoai told the newspaper.

By 9:00 on Thursday morning, nearly $10,000, equivalent to 12,938 Singapore dollars, has been donated to help the Vietnamese tourist.

The money was collected via a crowdfunding project created by a Singaporean man, Gabriel Kang.

Kang launched the project on Wednesday to raise money to buy an iPhone 6 and other gifts to send to Vietnam for Thoai to apologize to him on behalf of the people of Singapore, and express the hospitality of the people of the Southeast Asian city-state.

As of 10:30 pm (Vietnam time) on Wednesday, the money Kang raised has amounted to over US$7,300, while the initial target he set was just $1,350, which was fulfilled within an hour of launching the project.

Kang’s fundraising campaign will last for eight more days.

Kang said he had already bought a gray iPhone 6 worth S$1,288 to send to Vietnam for Thoai, and also made a video clip recording the process of paying the bill for the smartphone.

“My name is Gabriel and I work in a small local tech startup. I am a Singaporean who is neither rich nor poor and I do not seek to profit directly or indirectly from the results of this campaign,” he said on the website.

With strong pressure from public opinion in Singapore, the Air Mobile store has temporarily been closed. A Singaporean community, named SMRT Ltd (Feedback), has posted a photo showing the Air Mobile store with its door shut.

But this does not mean it will close permanently, as some shops in Sim Lim Square which usually did the same bad thing on tourists often closed and then reopened with a new name, said the community.

The case is being closely monitored by the community. The Singaporean community has even found the home address, telephone number and passport numbers of the shop owner and his wife, Jover Chew.

Earlier, two female tourists from China have been cheated by the Air Mobile store which sold some iPhone 6 at $3,000 compared to the official price of $ 1,800 prices, said Singaporean press.

After intervention of the police, they threw a bag of coins to the buyers, leaving them count it one by one right at the shop.

Sim Lim Square is sometimes known as "black spots" and the government has repeatedly received complaints related to this area.

Singapore Tourism Board yesterday said it will take tougher moves with shopping malls like Sim Lim Square to protect the rights of tourists, while keeping a good image of the country's tourism industry in the eye of foreign tourists.