Pres BBM signs into law AFASA and Procurement Law

 President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.  signed two important laws last Saturday:    RA 12009 New Government Procurement Act (NGPA) and RA 12010  AFASA (Anti Financial Accounts Scam Act.  The latter which is related to the topic of this blog, mandates financial institutions to safeguard accounts of their customers from scamming.

PBBM signs into law NGPA and AFASA laws

"Anti-scam law

Meanwhile, Marcos said Afasa mandates financial institutions to implement necessary safeguards to protect the accounts of Filipinos amid the surge of online scamming.

The new law also defines and penalizes money muling activities (a type of money laundering), social engineering schemes, economic sabotage, and other offenses involving financial accounts.

It authorizes the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to investigate cases involving the violation of the law, apply for cybercrime warrants and orders, and request the assistance of law enforcers in the investigation of cases.

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The BSP will also be exempted from existing laws on bank secrecy and data privacy to gather sufficient information relative to the commission of prohibited acts under the law."

Exposing scammers - how to turn the tables

Tracking scammers

Banks, computer, store, repair tech support can be nests for scammers

Unmasking scammers

Some call centers could be...

How to fight scammers

Stop them on their tracks. Teach them a lesson. Be smart. Where are they? Are they from India, in Pogo hubs? Let us destroy them and end our sufferings

Turning the tables on scammers

Dont be a victim; sometimes scam the scammers. So let them taste the does of their own crimes. Or annoy them

Gray areas of scamming?

 Have you heard about:

1.  Bloggers or production units of TV shows asking for x deals (free food or hotel rooms) ;   or charging posts for as much as P50,000 per post on a page;

2.  Or ridiculous talks that charges P5,000 per half day; 

3.   Or get rich billionaire overnight but numbers don't add up.  Over estimating their net worth and pretending to be what they are not.   Are they real

4.  How about stock market good news?

5.  High paying job offers that is actually an MLM or Ponzi scheme.  So many to be wary of that could be scams...

Even those who ask pity for their children/relative in the hospital asking for mere P1 can clean your accounts dry.  BEWARE.   

PT Barnaum was said to have said that suckers are born every day.

Is this a legal arrangement?

 A company is trying to find ways to get to have a project licensed.  But he could not get around the titling problem.  

So they are planning to be associated with a ________organization so that the project will be owned by the said firm, they accept payment as a donation, and they get a unit free.   No licensing is required and is exempt from paying necessary fees.  This is legal

But it could be a scam.   The organization gets a juicy % of the revenues.   

Can you afford to live in a foreign country? Just to think that many are too crazy to move abroad.

 Have we have been fooled into going and living abroad?   Think hard

Are they better off just staying in the Philippines and doing a side hustle

Its not only in the Philippines

 We are frequently shamed by stories of our fellow men maltreating the tourists:     horrendous taxi fares, robberies, scamming by their Pinay GFs

Its a relief to know that this is not unique to the Philippines.   It may not be true for Japan (they never had a lost baggage in Kansai airport) or Taiwan (I left a bag at a train station and found it there again)

This is a story of a business partner who went on tour package to Russia and Eastern Europe.   He warned me not to travel to this Eastern European country.   R......ia.   Thieves broke the lock of their luggage and stole valuables.   The worse part is that the airline from P....d refused any responsibility or liability to the incident.   

Yet we beat the air out of our Philippine counterparts for small offenses.

Not only in the Philippines.