4 nabbed for text messaging scam

Four persons were recently apprehended in Davao City for allegedly swindling overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) of their hard earned money through a text messaging scam.

The National Bureau of Investigation-Anti-Fraud and Computer Crimes Division (NBI-AFCCD), in coordination with elements of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC), identified the four suspects as Jeremias Clamor Jr., alias Felipe Teves Suarez; Sharwin Reyes, alias Mark Valdez Zamora; Manny Carlo Yu, alias Carlo Magbanue Yu, Ronald Vazquez Santiago, and Carlo Yu; and Veronica Reyes.

Charges of large scale estafa through falsification of private documents and illegal use of names and aliases were filed against the suspects.

The authorities have also launched a manhunt for four other conspirators identified as Geoffrey Raymond Uy, Joseph Calunsag, and Ramon dela Vega. The fourth suspect at large, who uses the alias Juanita Camacho, was the one who reportedly sent text messages to one of the victims, Maria Ginah Cimafranca Bajana, a Filipina working in Singapore.

NBI-AFCCD chief Elfren Meneses Jr. said that July 12, the AMLC received a complaint from Bajana regarding fraudulent text messages from Camacho who said she won in a lottery. The NBI-AFCCD, along with the Bureau’s Southern Mindanao Regional Office (SEMRO) headed by Romulo Manapsal, immediately planned an entrapment operation.

Bajana said the syndicate demanded money on three occasions and was able to get from her a total of P79,214.30, which she said she had remitted through different branches of Western Union in Davao City.

On the fourth try, Bajana said she was instructed to send P44,800 to Clamor. The authorities manned six possible Western Union outlets in Davao and Cagayan de Oro where the racketeers might pick up the amount.

At around 2 p.m. on Friday, Clamor and Reyes dropped by the RCPI-WU branch located along C.M. Recto St., Regina Complex, Davao City to claim the money. They were apprehended as they were withdrawing the amount.

Meneses said Bajana was not the only OFW who was victimized by the text scam. It appeared that on Aug. 4, Santiago got $169.83 from Joni Mauro Aguilar, an overseas worker in Greece who wired the amount to an M. Lhullier-WU outlet in Davao City.

Authorities estimate that the group had duped as much as P155,000 from their victims.

AMLC executive director Vic Aquino said that although the text scam has been going on since November 2002, people are still being victimized up to now.

"Now they have even shifted their focus on overseas workers. We are encouraging people who have been victimized by this group to come out and file charges against them," he said.

"If you receive a text message saying that you won in a lottery, then you should be the one receiving the money and not the other way around," Aquino warned.