Just thought I would post a quick note on another scam, a real scam, that happens in AC, sometimes. I have a filipina friend who is a very popular girl. You know the type. Stunner, 2k friends on facebook, knows all the rich guys around town.
Well, got an add request today for a new facebook account of hers, or so it looked like. That's pretty routine. Girls here make new accounts and shuffle me into different accounts so their new boyfriend or whatever won't see their friends. So I accepted.
Quickly get a message that she wants to meet me tonight, which gets my libido started because she is, well, gorgeous. So my skeptical instincts are temporarily over-ridden by my libido. She chats a bit with neutral questions about where I am, what I am doing, etc. Then she asks if I can send her some peso for transportation to come to my place in AC, from Makati.
As soon as money is mentioned, skeptical instincts kick in. Not that it's unusual for some girl to ask for money to come to my place from Makati. Not that I would get mad about it or think twice. I would just normally tell her I will help her when she gets here but I don't send money. But...it occurred to me that it was suspicious that she was sending this request from a brand new account that she just made and added me to. After getting suspicious, there were some other questionable things (like her original account hadn't been online for 10 hours).
Got in touch with her, turns out it's a fake account and apparently people do this to her fairly regularly. Make a facebook profile with her pics, add all her friends, send out requests for P4P money. So we reported it and, actually, something good might come out of this for me, after all lol
Now, this isn't new or anything. People have been doing it for a while in other countries. But it adds a more believable dimension to it in Angeles since we are kind of used to being asked for money and usually there is a reason to give money...but this serves as one more reason not to give money to a girl before she comes. Not only is there a good chance SHE is scamming you...it might not even be her that's doing it.
