Cheating incidents involving now-defunct Mobile Air and its owner, Jover Chew, made local and global headlines, putting the reputation of Sim Lim Square on the line, so much so that tourists have been told to be careful or avoid going to the mall.

Mr Leong Peng Kun, a tour guide of 27 years, said he tells tourists to be extra careful at Sim Lim Square if they ask about the mall, such as to take note of prices and to check the quality of the gadgets carefully before paying.

The 55-year-old said: "I'll say, 'If I were you, I won't go.'

"If not, if they get cheated, they will blame me for not warning them."

Some of his fellow tour guides do the same thing, he added.

On travel website TripAdvisor, the mall now has a rating of 21/2 out of five.

At press time, out of the 276 reviews on TripAdvisor, 122 rated Sim Lim Square "terrible".

At least 40 of the negative reviews were from people listed as being from Singapore warning tourists against going there.

Many of them were also written before the high-profile cheating case in November last year.

At the same time, 55 reviews rated the mall "excellent" or "very good", saying that the mall is an "electronics haven".

Mr Patrick Chen, 35, an accountant, said he will discourage his overseas friends from visi-ting the mall as he does not want to risk them seeing an "ugly" side of Singapore.

"I will either go with them or take them somewhere else," he said.