1. Disappearing Act
Lady Antonia supposedly walked to the grocery store near the village gate to buy a few things kasi daw wala na kaming detergent, suka and toyo. I was asking the lavandera to go buy the soaps but she volunteered to go out instead. Medyo nagtaka nga ako ng konti bakit sya nagvolunteer. She left at past 2 pm and by 6:15 pm, she was not yet back. Hmmm. When she arrived, she said she was already near our house when Beth called her. Her alibi was she saw an old woman trying to flag down a cab. No one wanted to stop daw. So she was the one who called a cab. Hmmm. For four hours? ah ah, not buying her story. Even her companions looked bewildered.
Today she wanted to go out again, we have no more veggies daw. I just came from the palengke last night, nag grocery din ako a few days ago, and last week namalengke sya. I said no need for her to go to the grocery. Baka abutin na naman sya ng apat na oras.
#prettyantonia
2. Down the drain
In our 20 years of living in our old house and almost 9 years here, we never had a baradong kitchen drainage. Our auxiliary kitchen is only a year old, and yet, the two big kitchen sink drains are all barado na. Full of hardened cooking oil. Alah, si Antonia pala dumped all the used cooking oil in the drain every time. Grabe. Kaya pala we always ran out of cooking oil. I always told her to grill meat and fish instead of frying. A few weeks ago, I reminded her again not to dump the waste over food, scraps from veggies, meat and seafood in the drain. To put them in separate container. Hindi naman pala sinusunod. #kunsumisyon
3. Dugo-dugo Gang
Every so often, I warn our household staffs about the dugo-dugo gang and other scams. Meron dito sa village na muntik-muntikanan na.
Antonia told me they too were victimized by someone who introduced herself as an only child of a rich American citizen living in California.
She befriended Antonia’s aunt. She was allowed to stay in her aunt’s house. They all believed in her amazing story.
She said she has one hundred million pesos deposited in a bank and even showed passbooks and bank statements with huge balances. Meron pa daw P80,000,000. Wow dami.
Scammer said she would give them her eighty million pesos to get a Jollibee franchise. And since she has no relatives in the Philippines, she needs them to manage the branch. She asked the aunt to spend first for the transportation, food, and other expenses amounting to P45,000, and she would return all her abono once the outlet is up and running.
They all got very excited. Every day they would travel far and wide searching for potential Jollibee outlet. The aunt even forced her daughter to resign from her job in Taiwan to come home to become the manager of the Jollibee outlet. The daughter had just been working for 3 months when she abandoned her work. Her employer blacklisted her. But she was unfazed because a bigger fortune is awaiting her in the Philippines, an 80M Jollibee franchise!
As a guarantee for the aunt’s funding the initial capitalization, the scammer gave her passbooks and some signed checks.
Long story short, Antonia’s aunt lost all her savings, her children’s savings, Antonia’s P13,000. Including the money set aside for the son’s education and travel.
Too late before they found out that this Jollibee franchise thing was just a ploy. The scammer’s bank accounts had zero balances. She has never been found.
#bewareofscammers
