A 36-YEAR-OLD woman accused of scamming people into investing P30 million in different kinds of scam was arrested by the Regional Special Operations Group (Rsog) 7 in Barangay Kasambagan, Cebu City yesterday.
Operatives were serving 14 warrants of arrest for estafa and syndicated estafa on Maria Victoria Ongcol Torralba, who hails from Sitio Happy Valley, Barangay West Poblacion, City of Naga.
“She’s in the habit of swindling people. She doesn’t have a definite scheme as long as she can con them. There’s scamming, pyramiding and sometimes, she’ll be the middleman between clients and lending institutions but she won’t remit the money to them,” said Senior Insp. Reslyn Abella of the public information office of the Police Regional Office (PRO) 7.
Abella said Torralba’s victims are mostly retired soldiers, teachers, overseas Filipino workers and engineers.
“Sometimes, she worked alone but she would also operate with a group. We’re still investigating if she has other cohorts,” Abella said.
Torralba, Abella said, promised her victims 20 percent of the profit.
One of the complainants, Gina (real name withheld), said Torralba promised her a sack of rice and 20 percent of the profit with the P50,000 capital she invested.
Torralba was able to give her the sacks of rice and the money on three occasions, until her investment reached P100,000, she said. That was when the rice and the money stopped coming.
All Gina got after that were promises and excuses from Torralba.
Other complainants who gave Torralba more than a million flocked to the PRO 7.
Public caution
They said that she had a habit of dropping names of local business bigwigs to avoid paying her dues.
“She even issued us checks that bounced,” Gina said.
Torralba denied scamming her customers but said she owes them between P6 million and P10 million.
“I did not swindle them. Actually, we have a binding contract. I was able to give them the profit in the beginning. But the time came when I ran out of money because I invested in another venture and I wasn’t paid... I’m willing to settle my obligations,” she said in Cebuano.
She asked for their forgiveness and promised to pay them.
Abella encouraged other victims to surface and visit the Rsog office in PRO 7 to file a complaint against Torralba.
“If there’s a red flag, easy money or win-win situation where you don’t pay anything and you just accept easy money, those are red flags. Let’s be careful when it comes to money,” Abella warned in Cebuano.
Chief Insp. Ricardo Tero, deputy chief of the Rsog 7, said that they are checking for other arrest warrants against Torralba from other police offices in the cities of Talisay, Cebu and Lapu-Lapu as she allegedly faces 30 other counts of estafa in court.