ILOILO City – The Police Regional Office (PRO) 6 cautioned the public to be wary of unidentified people demanding money through text messages, its spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Joem Malong said.
Malong said in an interview that people should immediately report these text scammers to the police.
Although the regional office has no available figure on these scammers, Malong noted they have received several complaints through PRO-6’s hotline and official social media accounts.
She explained that these text scammers use four common schemes: the load scam, electronic raffle, New People’s Army (NPA) extortion, and “budol-budol” text.
The method works as the suspect asks for prepaid e-loads and the victim sends money through remittances.
“For the load scam, the suspect will introduce himself or herself as a known person, usually an elected official like the mayor, vice-mayor, and targets businessmen or sellers of a product,” she said.
In some instances, the suspects introduce themselves as members of the Philippine National Police, she said.
The public should also not be fooled by text messages informing them of winning in electronic raffles.
“We hope that they will not be fooled. I myself have also received that kind of texts,” Malong said, adding that suspects in this kind of scheme demand as much as P12,000.
The public is advised to verify first the legitimacy of agencies that claim to have conducted the electronic raffle.
“For example, if the electronic raffle claimed to have been conducted by a radio or television station, we have to connect first with the station to know if it is real or not,” she said.
Another modus of the suspects is to use the NPA to threaten victims to eventually give in to their requests.
Reporting these scams to police authorities would help them trace the suspects “and if they are really NPAs, we can entrap them,” Malong said.
“Budol-budol” is when the suspects call someone to tell him/her that a member of the victim’s family was involved in an accident and needs immediate medical attention.
“Scammers using this scheme, ask the victims to send money or directly give one’s property to save the family member,” she said.
Malong said the best way not to be victimized by the scammers is to ignore these text messages, do not confirm or deny one’s identity, and avoid disclosing information through cellphones. (With a report from PNA/PN)
