By Daisy CL Mandap
 |
| Photo of the package the helper's online boyfriend was supposed to have sent from France |
The red flag has again been raised on online love scams as a
Filipina domestic worker nearly fell for a man who wooed her on messenger, and
tried to make her pay US$800 for a supposed gift package he was sending from
France on Nov. 27.
At about the same time, a transnational syndicate that
swindled 139 women out of HK$34 million (US$4.34 million) in online romance
scams in Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia and Singapore was busted in a joint inter-country
police operation.
The syndicate’s victims included 58 women in Hong Kong.
However, this number was just a small fraction of the number of similar
cases reported in the city so far this year.
According to the police, 425 reports of online romance scams
were reported in the first nine months of 2019 alone, in which swindlers
managed to fleece their victims of HK$156.6 million.
The worst case involved a 53-year-old local woman who lost
HK$28 million to her internet lover.
A Filipina domestic worker from Quarry Bay was among the
lucky ones who wised up in time to avoid sending money to a man who wooed her
relentlessly on messenger, then tried to make her pay for a gift package he was
supposed to have sent her from France.
 |
| Facebook profile of the online lover |
According to the worker’s friend Jhona, the internet lover
who used a Facebook account in the name of Stefan Mihai, initiated the chat via
messenger. He reportedly wooed the helper non-stop for a week until she got
hooked.
“In short, na inlove agad ang friend ko in just one week. Ang
pogi naman din kasi,” Jhona said in her post in the online Facebook group,
Domestic Workers Corner.
Not long after, the guy dropped the trap. He said he was
sending the helper a package containing all sorts of expensive goodies, and
even went to the extent of sending her pictures and videos of the branded items
that were supposedly packed inside.
But then came the deal. The swindler said the shipping cost
was US$5,800. He said he paid US$5,000 upfront, but the helper as recipient
needed to pay the remaining US$800 in line with FedEx regulations.
When the Filipina said she didn’t have that much money, her virtual
lover said he put US$10,000 inside the package so she wouldn’t be burdened by
the fee requirement.
Jhona said that was when her friend started having doubts,
as she knew it was illegal to put cash in mailed packages. She called up FedEx
and learned that what “Stefan” had said about her shouldering the rest of the
shipping cost was not true.
Probably sensing that she had lost interest, another man
with the Facebook profile name Avram Gheorge and who introduced himself as
Stefan’s friend initiated a chat with the worker, and urged her to pay the
US$800 so she could already claim her package.
When she said she was no longer interested, both men stopped
communicating with her.
 |
| The sweetener: Supposed airway bill for the package addressed to the Filipina worker |
Jhona said she posted the warning, along with photos
supplied by her friend, to warn her fellow migrant workers against falling for
love scams.
“Mahirap kumita ng dolyar, kaya huwag tayong paloloko sa
kanila,” she said in her post.
That warning comes too late for hundreds of women in Hong Kong who have fallen for the scam over the years.
Police records show that last year, the romance peddlers
netted HK$450 million from 596 victims. They included a 66-year-old
businesswoman who was conned by an “engineer from Britain” out of HK$180 million, the
biggest amount lost in the scam.
But the longest-running scam involved a finance manager who
lost HK$14million over eight years to a con artist who posed as a British film
director. In all those years, the victim never met her online boyfriend in
person. – with a report from SCMP
---
I-try mo ito, Kabayan: Kung interesado kang ma-contact ang mga advertiser namin dito, pindutin lang ang kanilang ad, at lalabas ang auto-dialer. Pindutin ulit upang tumawag. Hindi na kailangang pindutin ang mga numero.
