James Ryan Jonas

Don’t fall for this Western Union scam

Suppose you receive an email from an unknown sender telling you an outrageously huge amount of cash is waiting to be picked up by you in Western Union, what do you do?

a. Pray and thank God for this windfall gain
b. Rush to a Western Union branch to pick up your money
c. Delete the email

If you answered letter c, congratulations! You won’t be victimized by these Western Union scammers.

Here’s a copy of the email I received yesterday about this Western Union scam, a variation of the infamous 419 or Nigerian scam.

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PDIC updates on Rural Bank of Paranaque (RBoP)

PMT Forum member tacamonchi recently shared some useful updates about the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation’s (PDIC) takeover of the Rural Bank of Paranaque (Banco Paranaque) in the thread Legacy Financial Group’s rural banks.

Early this week, he visited RBoP’s Ortigas branch and was able to talk to a Ms. Hermie from the PDIC who graciously answered all his questions. Here are what he have gathered from the conversation.

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New Adsense format: Image Gallery ads

Update! Today, January 10, I saw a variation of this new Image Gallery ad format.

Instead of thumbnail images and left and right arrow buttons, the ad contains a prettier version of the left and right scrollbars and a Slideshow button that, well, plays a slideshow of the images being advertised.

Here’s a Youtube video of this new Adsense ad format in action.

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Jail the Pangandamans!

You’ve probably heard it by now. Members of a clan of political elites are involved in an alleged mauling incident last week at the Valley Golf and Country Club in Antipolo City.
The suspects: Masiu, Lanao del Sur Mayor Nasser Pangandaman, Jr. and his 5 bodyguards. Father Nasser Sr., Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) Secretary, reportedly just watched while the victims, a 56-year-old and a 14-year-old boy, were beaten up.

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Adsense income down, hit by economic crunch?

Leo of MixPH.com emailed me last week asking if I am seeing a decline in Google Adsense earnings. He noted that his week’s income was considerably lower than the previous week.

Actually, I’ve been experiencing this downtrend for a couple of weeks now. Although the site’s page impressions and click-through rates (CTR) were relatively unchanged, my Adsense income during the past weeks was lower compared to the previous months.

Leo of MixPH.com emailed me last week asking if I am seeing a decline in Google Adsense earnings. He noted that his week’s income was considerably lower than the previous week.

Actually, I’ve been experiencing this downtrend for a couple of weeks now. Although the site’s page impressions and click-through rates (CTR) were relatively unchanged, my Adsense income during the past weeks was lower compared to the previous months.

Leo of MixPH.com emailed me last week asking if I am seeing a decline in Google Adsense earnings. He noted that his week’s income was considerably lower than the previous week.

Actually, I’ve been experiencing this downtrend for a couple of weeks now. Although the site’s page impressions and click-through rates (CTR) were relatively unchanged, my Adsense income during the past weeks was lower compared to the previous months.

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Legacy rural banks on bank holiday?

Update: Two days after this article was posted, there are now official reports about Legacy banks closing and declaring a bank holiday. Read more here: Update on Legacy rural banks and in the Legacy Banks discussion thread.

After months of speculation in the PMT Forum, several banks under the Legacy Financial Group reportedly declared a bank holiday early this week, meaning they are, for the meantime, closed while planning for the next steps.

There are no official news available online yet but here’s what we have gathered so far based on posts by several PinoyMoneyTalk members.

Please note that the following are unofficial and unconfirmed statements and are merely opinions of PMT Forum members. As of this writing, there is no official word yet from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) or the Legacy Group.

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