Apple iPhone scammers in the Philippines

September 5, 2008

Stocks, Mutual Funds, Forex, Finance Philippines

Make Money Online, Stocks, Mutual Funds, Philippines

Those turned off by Globe’s expensive pricing of the Apple iPhone might be tempted to get one from black markets or online stores selling jailbroken versions of this newly-released (and may we add, hyped) phone.

But beware, because scammers who prey on people looking for cheap iPhones also abound.

Art Vasquez in a comment on the article Where to buy cheap Apple iPhones in the Philippines narrated how he got scammed by a scammer seller in a popular Filipino auction site.

I browsed several sites regarding iPhone 3G and came across this site which led me to Auction.ph where an iphone 3g is selling for Php29,000 for the 16GB.

I texted the seller and arranged to buy one. I had all the hesitation to buy when I was told I will need to send the payment first before the item is shipped to me. I asked several questions regarding the safetly of my money from the seller. I was told I can deposit my payment with BPI bank and that they couldn’t be a fly-by-night operation or a scam because having a bank account means that legal documents must be presented to open a bank account. With this in mind, I made the payment deposit. I was told I would get my iphone 3g the next day before 11am.

I guess you know the conclusion to this story. The next day came and went and no iphone. I called the same cell number but it’s turned off but if you text it or call it with a different number it responds to your inquiry to buy.

There you go. I hope you wont make the same mistake as I do.

If the BPI account where the payment was deposited was indeed the scammer’s account, Art can still go after the scammer if he can secure a court order instructing BPI to divulge the details of the account holder. Banks normally won’t release any information about an account because they are bound by the Bank Secrecy Law. But if there is a court order, BPI has no choice but to make public the account holder’s information.

Scammers assume that victims usually won’t take the time to run after them that’s why these scammers have the gall to commit such wrongdoings. If you were a victim, insist on going after them so that they eventually are put to jail.

If you have not encountered these scumbags yet, make sure you won’t become a victim just because you were lured by the iPhone.

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Topic keywords for this post:

baguio iphone scam
scammers in philippine

Written by James | PinoyMoneyTalk.com · Filed Under Apple iPad, iPhone, iPod

Join the discussion! Post a comment below

disappointedBUYER

Most of the sellers at auction.ph do not want to use the escrow system. They want the payments to be deposited at their BPI accounts. When I asked one seller why, she promptly answered that most of the sellers prefer not to use the escrow system because it would take a lot of days before they get the money paid by the buyer. How sad. I want to buy from that site because brand new gadgets are sold half of their original price.
Marc Doug

Yesterday nangyari din skin yung nangyari sa inyo pagkatapos ko magremit sa account ng scammer d xa ngtxt manlang haist kawawa naman yang mga yan walang pera kaya nang scamm nlng. para sau code name: Rosie N Manzan May karma din na maniningil sau
D man Direktang sa auction.ph ang gumawa pero cla padin ung pangunahing daan ng mga ganung pangyayari bagamat may kapabayaan taung mga buyer pero dapat tulungan din naman nila tau kahit papanu
kahit hindi na mabalik ung pera basta magawan ng paraan para di na cla makapangvictima pa ng iba at wag na sanang mgamit ang Auction.ph sa mga ganitong pangyayari dahil
maganda din naman ung hangarin ng Auction un mga mas dapat nang magingat’ at magsuri muna nang mabuti

Auction.ph Sir/Madam
sana matulungan nyo poh ako sa kaso Tnx more power
shoplifted

kaka hulog ko lang sa scam.. brought 2 iphone 32gb from mikaelalight of ebay… 5 of her customers received the phone pero sa akin ata bumawi.. bigla naging private yung profile…. I should have taken a screen shot of the other users so that i can get an address from them… She said she was based from Davao, but further inquiries led me to Baguio.. hayzzzz.. how can I reach someone from Baguio… Never ever will i buy online again…. unless trusted talaga… :(