NAIA chief falls victim to text scam

MANILA, Philippines - Instead of earning a cell phone load bonus, Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) general manager Angel Honrado admitted that he lost P500 worth of load to an unidentified text scammer.

Honrado confided to members of the weekly media forum Bulong Pulungan sa Sofitel Hotel in Pasay City the other day that he now knows better than to reply to unknown text senders after he became a victim of a text scam.

He said he recently received a text message informing him that he could earn a cell phone load reward if he would just text a certain cell phone number plus 500.

“When I followed the instruction I got a text reply that I successfully passed on P500 worth of load to the text sender,” he said.

Realizing that he was a victim of a text scam Honrado saved the text message for reference. But he again received a similar text from a different cell phone number, and this time he warned the sender that he would report the scam to the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) and the telecommunications company.

He said he received a similar message for the third time but instead of following the instructions he berated the sender and reported the number to the telecom company.

Honrado said he used to immediately send reply messages and return calls when he was still in the military service.

“If your commanding officer calls you and you cannot answer your cell phone in three rings then you will have to personally report to his office,” he said.

But having been scammed, Honrado admitted he is now wary of replying to text messages from unknown senders.