THE case opened when some newspapers started ringing the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) with news that they had received a mysterious fax - a slightly sensitive one, too. They'd received some details of a member of the futures exchange which had some minor problems with an audit. It was only after a little investigation that it became apparent that thanks either to a guilty fax or a couple of mispushed buttons, this private fax from the futures exchange to the SFC had been sent to at least 20 newspapers across town. Accessory to the crime: Multifax. This is a system which allows you to send one fax to a central computer, which then sends it out to loads of people on a list you've already programmed in. Before Multifax, you could only mistakenly send a fax to one person. Now, you can send it to 5,000 if things go wrong. Ivers Riley, who runs the futures exchange but, appropriately enough, has a name like an American detective, takes up the tale. ''It's minor stuff,'' he says. But with all these fraud stories floating about, it would be easy for someone to get the impression that there was a giant scandal brewing. We gallantly said we'd respect his confidentiality - an easy decision as, disappointingly, we never received a copy. Price war IT'S funny, but quite a few people rang after reading yesterday's piece headlined: ''Newborn investor learns lesson in reality'', saying they too had a mysterious problem - they always seemed to be buying shares at the day's highest price. Assuming small brokerages are basically honest, the laws of arithmetic say that for everyone who gets a bum deal like this, someone must get a good one. Funny how we've never met any. An experienced hand rang to advise that smart investors don't ring their brokers and tell them to buy shares - they tell them to buy shares at a certain price or within a certain range. For reference, the first port of call for anyone who feels they've been ripped off in this way is the stock exchange. Misgiving THE crisis in Rwanda means now is the time to breathe deep, put the hand into the pocket, and say: ''Errr, I've already given, thanks.'' No, seriously, lots of people are contributing and this is costing our friends at HSBC Holdings money. Incidentally, the stuff yesterday about the bank sending us their results early was a ''joke''. Would readers who thought it was true please stop ringing us. When disaster strikes, big or small, the Big Four banks in Britain take turns to operate, free of charge, a bank account for the appeal. Rwanda is the responsibility of Midland Bank, now owned by our friends in the Big Grey Oil Rig. And to its credit, the bank will effectively be donating banking services worth GBP15,000 (about HK$177,000) to the appeal. But didn't Midland handle Somalia, too? Well, yes. There must have been three mini-crises between Somalia and Rwanda which we somehow failed to notice. Ho licks IMPORTANT news from Macau: ''Glace de France started in Paris as a magical ice-cream experience for one of the enclave's most discerning palates, Dr Stanley Ho.'' So runs a fax issued yesterday by the Hotel Lisboa, which is seemingly keen that today's newspapers run long pieces about the move into ice-cream manufacturing by Stanley Ho Hung-sen, whom they refer to as ''Dr Ho''. There was a long article about certain aspects of his firm Shun Tak Holdings in yesterday's paper, but no mention of ice cream. ''Dr Ho felt strongly enough about the ice cream that he decided to re-create the magic of Glace de France in Macau.'' So he set up an ice-cream plant in Macau using secret French recipes, fresh ingredients and the like, to ''bring the freshness of Glace de France right to the doorstep of Dr Stanley Ho''. Girl scout FEMALE Chinese employees of Omni the Hong Kong Hotel could soon have a unique opportunity for romance. General manager John Girard received a letter from a man living in London saying he wanted a Chinese wife, aged 18-35, and asking John to put a poster advertising this fact on the hotel staff notice board. Why a hotel in Hong Kong? Well, the chap in London says: ''In my search for marriage I won't take any girl, only a Chinese girl. ''They are the most beautiful girls one can see anywhere and the best girls by far for any man to have as a wife. They are true and honest and loyal. ''I am sure that there are a lot of Chinese girls working in your hotel and in all hotels.'' The chap is happy to take someone who is widowed or separated, and loves kids, so they're no problem either. This is no faceless computer mail-shot - it's laboriously handwritten, which leads John to conclude that the author - who describes himself as a ''very kind, loving, respectable man . . . looking for a happy married life in the UK'' - is serious. He ends his proposed poster: ''I will pay for all your fares here. So come on girls, I know you are out there.''