MANILA – Overseas Filipino workers are urged to disregard text messages telling them that they have won large sums of money from bogus electronic lottery or raffle draws.
The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) issued the warning following a report from the Philippine Embassy in Vienna, Austria that people behind text scams even use public institutions and officials such as the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and BSP Governor Amando Tetangco Jr. and Bureau of Internal Revenue Commissioner Sixto Esquivas to make it appear that the scam is legal.
“The DFA strongly advises Filipinos to be cautious of these malicious schemes and to not respond to such text messages to avoid becoming victims of these scams,” the DFA said in a press statement.
The embassy reported that a Filipino woman became a victim of scammers. The victim told the embassy that she paid an equivalent of P258,809 to scammers for the release of her prize.
The payment was coursed through remittance center Western Union to a certain “Jerry Rivas Vidal”, a fictitious name.
Aside from that, the scammers even asked for an additional P38,900 as donation as soon as the transfer has been made.
Scammers would usually ask their victims to transmit money before they could claim their prize. The money would be allegedly used to pay for taxes or remittance charges or as donations.
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