The Bureau of Customs (BOC) has warned against “love scam” in social media where a fraud individual makes a victim fall in love to extort money. The scam leaves victims broken-hearted and an empty pocket.
According to Ivan Mayrina’s report on GMA News “24 Oras” on Wednesday, the BOC said that in the past three months that pandemic has occurred, at least 100 cases of this type of scam have been investigated.
The “love scam” starts on social media, where the suspects will meet their targets. The suspects will use different faces and personalities, make the victim fall in love, and make thrilling stories to entice the victim to give money.
Once they get the money, the suspects will vanish into thin air.
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“Ang targeting is through the social media accounts ng mga kababayan natin. Nagko-conduct sila ng some sort of a background check doon sa tao, sa mga activities niya,” said Vincent Maronilla, assistant communication at BOC.
(Targeting is through the social media accounts of our countrymen. They conduct some sort of a background check on the person, his or her activities.)
“Kaya minsan madali nila mapahulog ‘yung loob [ng biktima] kasi nakikita nila kung ano ‘yung mga gusto, ano ‘yung madalas i-post,” he added.
(Sometimes they could easily make their victims fall in love since they know what they want through their posts.)
Once they get the victim’s trust, the suspect would tell them they sent a package or gift with a huge value but it was held in the BOC so they need to pay to redeem it.
“Ang unusual is that napapayag silang magbigay at magdeposito sa remittance centers,” said Maronilla.
(The unusual is that they could make the victims give and deposit money at remittance centers.)
The BOC also notified that payment of taxes is through credited banks and cashiers in the Customs office. One should be suspicious if an individual would ask to make payments through a remittance center.
“Kapag may pera nang involved na hinihingi, magsaliksik muna ho. Hindi naman ho masamang magtanong sa mga ahensya ng gobyerno,” he said.
(If there’s money involved, research first. It is not wrong to ask government agencies.)