United Nations (UN) jobs scam
February 4, 2010
Just this week, one of our colleagues almost fell victim to another one of those scam job offers. This time, though, the job position is not a nanny but a high-paying and lucrative post at the United Nations in New York.
The job ad was forwarded to him by a friend who saw the advertisement online. He replied to the ad and filled up an “interview form.” A few days later, he got the following email informing him that he got the job and that he is being offered a salary of more than $10,000 a month.
The email goes:
Another Western Union scam
January 26, 2010
A few minutes ago, I received a weird email from a friend. It was his valid email address but the content sounded fishy. It went like this:
Western Union scam email
Greetings,
How are you doing today? I need you to help me out of this devastating situation that I got my self into, I had to come down to United Kingdom and unfortunately for me I was attacked by robbers in the Hotel where I am lodge.The robbers made away with my entire luggage’s, including my credit cards and air return tickets, they also disconnected the Hotel’s telephone cables, so we cant get access to the Interpol and also and compromised its database too, which means that no credit card payments nor online payments can be made at the moment.
How to report text scams
January 14, 2010
It’s annoying to wake up to an SMS message you don’t expect, and even worst when that text is a spam/scam message. Earlier, the following obvious scam message unfortunately woke me up.
E2 bago roaming # k. Mzta n kau jan? Ok lang ako d2 my pa2 dor 2 dor akong mga gamit jan. Mern k dun. Loadan m muna ako 500 n prepaid kard im4rtante lng tnx.
PIPC update: US law firm to undertake investigation
January 11, 2010
Here’s an update on the Performance Investments Products Corporation (PIPC) scam.
For those who have never heard of this case, PIPC was a foreign exchange trading investment firm which became one of the largest financial scams in the Philippines victimizing a number of high-networth individuals. The company grabbed headlines back in July 2007 after its Singaporean owner Michael Liew fled the Philippines and disappeared, allegedly taking with him more than $250 worth of investors’ money.
Bernard Madoff guilty, gets 150-year prison term
June 30, 2009
Just less than an hour ago, a US federal judge gave the 71-year-old former NASDAQ chair Bernard Madoff the maximum sentence of 150 years in prison for an “extraordinary evil” fraud that demolished the life savings of individuals and investments of charities and pension funds.
In the court decision, District Judge Denny Chin described the unprecedented nature of the multibillion-dollar fraud as “extraordinarily evil and that this kind of irresponsible manipulation of the system is not merely a bloodless financial crime that takes place just on paper, but it is instead … one that takes a staggering human toll.”
How to find and go after scammers
June 30, 2009
You entrusted your money to a person you believed was trustworthy but, in the end, you were deceived and now that person is gone.
You have been scammed.
If you know where they are, you can report scammers to the authorities in the Philippines.
But if they cannot anymore be found, you can resort to creative means of finding them. Just like having a paid advertisement on newspapers.
12DailyPro update: Refunds to start soon
April 4, 2009
Remember 12DailyPro (12DP)?
That high-yield autosurf investment program that offered 12% return on your investment after 12 days? If you were a former investor and you filed for a refund claim, you might get your money back if you are eligible for a refund.
Beware of these eBay scammers
February 24, 2009
In the past, we’ve featured stories of scams and victims’ tales of being scammed. Here’s an addition to those tales. Following are posts of some members of the PMT Forum about their experiences being victimized by scammers on eBay.
The modus operandi is almost always the same. A product is advertised at an unbelievably low price. The victim bids for the product and, upon winning the auction, sends money via bank deposit, GCash or some other method of payment. A few days later, the product is still not delivered to the buyer. The seller, however, cannot be contacted anymore.
PIPC was a Ponzi scheme, says Ferrier Hodgson
October 30, 2008
In the September 2008 update made to investors of scam investment program Performance Investment Products Corporation (PIPC), fraud investigation firm Ferrier Hodgson disclosed that the results of preliminary analysis support its belief that PIPC operated as a Ponzi scheme.
A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation that involves promising or paying abnormally high returns to investors out of the money paid in by subsequent investors, rather than from revenues generated by a real business.
PIPC was a multimillion-dollar scam investment program that was exposed in 2007 after the owner of the company, Singaporean Michael H.K. Liew, fled the Philippines and disappeared, supposedly taking with him between US$140 million and US$250 million of investors’ funds.
New scam: ‘Your money is fake, Sir!’
September 4, 2008
Have you ever experienced paying in, say, a shop or restaurant and the cashier told you your money is fake?
PMT member denshow10 had the exact same experience when he dined in a Pizza Hut branch last week. When he paid, the cashier told him the bill he was using did not have the names of the Philippine President and the Bangko Sentral Governor on it and, therefore, it was fake.
In the Fake Php 1,000 bill discussion thread, another PMT member mokoy222 mentioned that this may just be the modus operandi of a swindling gang. He knows this because he himself was also a victim.
His story:
