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Swindlers victimize moms of 2 OFWs via cell phones
(Philippine Daily Inquirer Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) SORSOGON CITYIT IS AN OLD modus operandi, but two mothers of overseas Filipino workers still fell prey to swindlers.
It started with a phone call to the unsuspecting mother from someone who introduced himself as an ambassador of the Philippines to a foreign country and was informing her about a tragedy that befell her son.
That was all that Remy Dechavez, an employee at the Sorsogon Provincial Hospital, had to hear and thereafter fell under the swindlers spell.
Dechavez recounted that a certain Ambassador Roilo Golez informed her on June 13 that her son got into trouble with a co-worker and accidentally killed the latter.
However, embassy personnel were able to spirit him out of the country and was now in Cebu under the care of a doctor who would be contacting her within the day.
Subsequently, a certain Dr. Sison called her up and informed her that her son was in Cebu and that he was injured but in stable condition, only that he needed to undergo emergency operation which entailed a big amount of money.
She was asked to send P80,000 through Smart Money Padala but that she must not inform anyone, especially the authorities, otherwise her sons whereabouts would be traced and he would be arrested.
The police were already alerted by the family of her sons co-workers even as they spoke, she was told.
Thinking only of the safety of her son, Dechavez hurriedly withdrew the amount and immediately sent them to Smart card Nos. 5577515763803102 and 5577515770615101, the numbers given by the suspects.
After sending the money, the doctor called her up again telling her to dispose of all transaction records so that no evidence could be traced to her.
That was the last time she heard from the suspects.
Only when she told one of her daughters about the story did she realize that she had been victimized.
Earlier, a retired employee of the same hospital, who requested anonymity, lost P100,000 to swindlers in the same manner.
Much earlier, hospital guard Manuel Ignacio and a retired teacher who refused to be named lost P50,000 and P80,000 respectively, under similar circumstances. Bobby Q. Labalan, PDI Southern Luzon Bureau
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