JUST when depositors are recovering from the scare about thefts through ATMs, we sadly realize that the credit card scammers are not just back; they never left.
I had wanted to use my credit card about three separate times. Each time, it was declined, so I had to pay cash. I wondered, though, why it was declined but never had the time to check with the company.
Yesterday I finally called Metrobank and the lady at the end of the phone said they had been wanting to call me. Why they couldn’t contact me was queer, since contact details are always part of their records. But that’s another story.
So she inquired if I had purchased anything after June 2, which was the last transaction date in their billing. How could I when my card was declined?, I said.
She then asked if I had tried to book a ticket for some travel scheduled last June 14. None, I said. Yet, my card was used to purchase a ticket through OneTravel.com worth USD$800.
At another time, my card was again used to book reservations at an Agoda Hotel costing P36,000.
Fortunately, both purchase attempts were declined. But the experience is no less scary, and leaves us realizing how easily thieves can have access to one’s credit card.
When we pay with our credit card, somewhere in that establishment lurks a practicing or potential thief. He or she could be the cashier in a restaurant when you pay your bill.
Or the sales person facilitating the transaction when you order a product online or over the counter, be it at a drugstore, a hospital pharmacy, your “suki” beauty parlor, supermarket or department store.
In other words, they’re everywhere, these thieves. Is nothing ever safe anymore?
So many moons ago, my older brother worked briefly as a stock broker. Because he was never a sales person, he was easily amazed at the volume of placements, and the amount of money that went out each day.
He didn’t stay long there but was proud to have belonged to a company that did not prey on retirees. “It’s their hard-earned money,” he said, “probably their last money for their entire lifetime. So, they should not be enticed to gamble.”
This is obviously a value lost on companies involved in commodities trading, online forex trading, mutual fund investments, currency trading, treasury bills, networking, pyramiding, and insurance and pension.
Remember such scammers as the Legacy Group of Companies, Aman Futures Group, Royal Manchester, Bank Capital Development, Performance Investment Products Corp. (PIPC), FrancSwiss, and One Dream Global Marketing?
Listed as among the top 10 scammers in the Philippines, these groups deceived people and ran away with a total P49.5 billion.
Worse, investors discovered that the scam masterminds disappeared while Legacy’s Celso de los Angeles was briefly jailed and soon died of cancer.
Small comfort, though, for the tens of thousands of investors who learned a bitter lesson--when it’s too good, it’s not true.
Next time one talks to you about get-rich-quick schemes, run for your lives