By BETHEENA KAE UNITE
The Bureau of Customs is warning the public of online love scam which lures local and foreign tourists with bogus promises, supposed affections fake packages in exchange of money.
Customs Commissioner Isidro Lapeña said they received reports of increasing incidents of online rip offs, specifically the online scam.
Lapeña revealed the modus of the scammers which, at first, would befriend their potential victim and will pretend to be in love.
The victim would then be promised of a package containing signature bags and gadgets supposedly held by the Customs bureau and will then be told to produce money for its release.
Recently the BoC received a complaint from a resident of Pangasinan who was scammed by an internet sweetheart who befriended and promised her of an expensive package.
The victim told the bureau that he was duped to pay P30,000 to a certain Jenalyn Miranda for the release of the package said to be held by Customs.
But after paying Miranda via money transfer, the suspects asked for an additional of P80,000 again for the release of the package.
“If things are too good to be true, get out, that’s a trap,” said Lapeña.
According to Lapeña, the BoC’s helpdesk BoC-CARES received a total of 1,263 reports and inquiries on various online scams from January to September 2017.
From this, there were 412 reports made via phone calls; 159 via emails; while 692 reported similar incidents via social media.
Others are victimized via text messages or phone calls claiming they have a package held by Customs, often citing BoC in Cebu.
“They would usually use the name of the bureau and pose as BoC employees who are asking money to shoulder the “duties and taxes” in exchange for the release of the package”, Lapeña said.
Lapeña further stressed that the BoC does not collect customs duties and taxes through personal bank accounts or money transfer services. The bureau only transacts with accredited agent banks (AAB).
