Verify sources of your shares and repost - they could be fake or misleading

Rizal Philippines
October 31, 2016

Some posts could be prank or false information (we have no way of verifying from the web)

Some of the near disaster posts that I nearly fell victim too:

1.  That an arrest warrant would be served to a lady govt official  (talse)

2.  That a driver lover alleged linked to a drug problem has been arrested (false)

3.  That going to US would no longer require visa (false)

4.  That FB would soon require payment (false  FB would forever be free)

So ingat lang mga bloggers, social media users.   Verify your sources.  Baka makuryente

List of top scams that you must be aware of

There will be less educated scam victims

From Consumer Fraud report

The top 5 Philippine Scam

  1.  The Aman futures led by a Malaysian Manuel K. Amalilio who duped some P12 billion pesos especially in Visayas and Mindanao involving some 15,000 individuals.  This was in 2012.  They promised 50 to 80% returns within 17 to 20 days.  Amalilio was arrested because of fake passport but has not been extradited to the Philippines

  2.  The Legacy group.  Led by Mr. Celso de los Angeles.  They promised double your money in five years. and used rural banks to get the money from the public

As of 2008, the bank accumulated a total of P467 million deposits but had negative networth of P239 million.   When it was closed on December 12, 2008 it had only Cash on Hand of P1 million.

We had 2x your money for some of our projects but we paid them on time.

PDIC had advanced a total of P11 billion to the Legacy group

3.  PDAF (by Napoles involving senators, congressmen)  They were able to defraud a total of P10 billion pesos by siphoning funds to fake NGO, and then paying back to com to the sponsoring solons.   This may have had the blessing of top govt officials.

4.  Multitel led by Rose Balajadjay.  The damage could have been in the order of P100 billion .  The funny thing about this is that they were able to get endorsements of top SEC officials (who later stopped their operations)  The scheme involved 2x your money for a minimum of P10,000 for a lock in period of 18 months  The counselors were paid 20% commission.

5.  PIPC involved Singaporean Michael Lew  and wealthy Filipinos and promised interest/yield of 4.5% daily for a minimum of $1,000  which could be encashed via the internet.  Lew was estimated to have fled with $150 million to $240 million of investors money.

Characteristic of Scams

There will be  less educated scam victims

There was this feature at ANC Money portion on scams.  The scams are characterized by the following:

1.  The deal is complicated.  It could be difficult to understand for a layman to understand;

2.  There is no such thing as guaranteed high continuous earnings.  If the promoter promises that, then it is a scam.

3.  Keep it a secret.  If others know about this, then you may lose the opportunity;

4.  The un educated, the lower SEC, the more numerous ones are victims,   They lack financial literacy.

5.  Scams happen because the investors never bother to check with DTI and SEC for licenses.

Watch out for these signs.

They were present in:

Balajadyay  Celso de los Angeles,

How about the pre need?  Were they scams?

Can power utilities (DUs) charge brown out losses to system loss?

There were rumors that they were going to do that?  Can they?  Or has DOE approved of this? Na dukot na kaya?

Some common unnoticed scams

They happen everyday; some go unnoticed like change at buses or supermarkets or stores. Some sellers, drivers will not give you the 50 or 25 centavos change.   Multiply that by a thousand customers passengers a day and number of terminals in a supermarket say 50, multiply by 30 days and 12 months, the amounts could be staggering.

One of the scams happen with the load;  after 10 texts or 1 minute call, the phone announces that there is no more load.   Has this happened to you?  But it happens to many people.  Your 50 pesos load gone.

Is there a law against this?

Have you been a victim?

How do water utilities have system loss

Scams and crimes abound

Rizal Philippines   |September 17, 2014

My neighbor showed me how to pay minimum to water utilities.  He just turns on the faucet at drip level.  The water meter does not move.  The force of the leaking water is not enough to drive the meter.  So he can fill his container without paying more than what he is paying now.  He told me that there are several rich people who have underground cistern that are just being filled by drip/leak method and they do not pay much.

Five most common scams

Rizal Philippines  |  September 9, 2014



Repost from PC world articles

The five most common on line scams are the following:

1.  Pishing.

    The scammer tries to get your account # especially if its a credit card or ATM number by pretending the sender of the article that the bank is asking for an update or confirmation

2.  Auction fraud or non existing on line store.

     They ask for pay pal or credit card payments and you get nothing  Some China sites are like this, and you can not have any remedy.

3.  Nigerian scam

    "I am a bank manager and I have client with x million of funds in escheat, and I wish we can help her."

  " I am the son of the royal prince and  I found out that he has x zillions deposited in Swiss account, and I wonder if we can be partners for this and I will give you x% percentage of the loot if you help me?"

    These used to be letters and now the variation is email.

4.  The reshipping re fund transfer.

     Beware, the goods could be narcs or money for laundering.  

5. The winning of lottery or free gifts in a lottery that you are not aware you joined.

(Let me add that in our country, the load transfer scam is very common.   "If you text this secret code to this number, you will get a 30% discount on your next bill. The sender sends you the thread of numbers which turns out to be pasa load to him (from  50 pesos to a few hundred pesos which you lose) and then you do not get the promised 30% discount.   Hu hu hu